Dr Levell has recently pioneered music elicitation as a social research method, and more recently as an intervention tool. The approach is broadly similar to ‘Desert Island Discs’ on Radio 4, however with the addition of sharing and discussing music videos and sometimes lyrics to help tell stories.
To hear a short voice note explanation of music elicitation, recorded in 2021 for The Sociological Review (Click here).
The infographic below outlines the key benefits for music elicitation as a tool (for further depth see Dr Levell’s book using the method). More recent work has developed the ‘Theory of Sonic Mattering’ which explains in more depth the power of co-listening and storytelling with music is so powerful for building bridges with marginalised young people. This theory was developed during a 2-year study using music elicitation as both a research method and an intervention tool for boys at risk of involvement in serious and organised crime in Albania. The results were published in a book in 2024.
This method has been used and inspired by various other researchers- take a look at Dr Levell’s published paper here (open access) which outlined the history of the approach and the different and emerging ways researchers have used music as an interview tool. Dr Levell is keeping track of how this paper has been cited and there have been some promising developments with the use of music elicitation in international development projects and in group work.
Music elicitation has been picked up in a recent (2021) ‘Family Criminology’ textbook written by Dr Amanda Holt and promoted as a good tool for sensitive research- take a look at an excerpt here.
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