Does the listener care? Emotional resonance and connection in the age of algorithmic music

Amon Kipyegon Kirui ORCID iD

Issue: Vol. 7 No.8 2026 Article 5 pp. 2242 – 2257
DOI: https://doi.org/10.38159/ehass.2026785 Published online 30th September 2026

© 2026 The Author(s). This is an open access article under the CCBY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).

Views: 47
26 Downloads

DOWNLOAD PDF

As generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) models achieve high fidelity in mimicking musical structures and timbres, debates surrounding the role of human agency in listener engagement emerge. As the music industry moves to algorithmic music to ensure efficiency, it is not yet clear whether audiences are appreciating music as an independent sonic entity or as a communicative gesture of human will. This paper examined how perceived authorship affects emotional resonance in Kenyan university students through a mixed-methods explanatory sequential design. The study, anchored in the Theory of Ngoma, which views music as a complete social institution that needs vital force (Roho), questions the belief that acoustic perfection is synonymous with artistic value. A quantitative deceptive listening experiment (N = 76) was conducted across student populations drawn from Kabarak University, Kenyatta University, and the Technical University of Kenya. The qualitative phase employed expert elicitation, in which the insights of an international panel of musicologists, AI experts, and cultural theorists were sought. This professional discussion was employed to address the authenticity loss and to interpret the statistical declines in emotional attachment within the framework of African musicology, formalist aesthetics, and neoliberal commodification. The findings showed that explicit knowledge of AI authorship led to a directional decline in listener emotional resonance, even where the tracks were sonically indistinguishable. This suggests a fundamental audience preference for the human spirit and intentionality behind the sound. Consequently, these findings provide critical insights into the limitations of AI in replicating the functional, socio-spiritual, and communal dimensions of African musical arts.

Keywords: AI Music, Algorithmic Music, Authenticity, Emotional Resonance, Music Perception, and Ngoma Theory.

Akhtar, Mohd Junaid, and Sarita Nagvanshi. “Parasocial Interaction and Virtual Influencers.” In Redefining the Future of Digital Marketing With Virtual Influencers, 151–80. IGI Global, 2025. https://doi.org/10.4018/979-8-3373-0255-3.ch006.

Akpan, E. “Re: Can Generative AI Ever Replicate the Socio-Spiritual Dimensions of African Musical Arts? ,” 2026.

Aruwajoye, K. “ Floating Signifiers: AI, Semiotics, and the Crisis of Meaning in Music .” Dartmouth College, 2025.

Bakenne, Nureni Aremu, and Israel A. Fadipe. “Extra-Mundane Communication in Ayinla Omowura’s Music: Exploring Connections Between a Tool and an Agent.” In Indigenous African Popular Music, Volume 2: Social Crusades and the Future, 3–29. Springer, 2022.

Braun, Virginia, and Victoria Clarke. “Using Thematic Analysis in Psychology.” Qualitative Research in Psychology 3, no. 2 (2006): 77–101.

Bullindah, J. Z., and A. Kula. “Revolutionizing Qualitative Research: The Impact of ATLAS. ti for Enhanced Data Analysis. “Ti for Enhanced Data Analysis.”  15th International Music and Performing Arts Conference 2025 Book of Abstracts.  Kabarak University, 2025.

Chia, Suqi, Andree Hartanto, and Eddie M.W. Tong. “Do Listeners Devalue AI-Generated Pop Music? Exploring Negative Biases in Listeners’ Responses to AI-Labelled vs Human-Labelled Pop Music.” Computers in Human Behavior: Artificial Humans 6 (December 2025): 100217. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chbah.2025.100217.

Creswell, John W., and Vicki L. Plano Clark. Designing and Conducting Mixed Methods Research. Sage Publications, 2017.

Das, Sanjukta, and Rituparna Kundu. “The Ethics of Artificial Intelligence in Creative Arts: A Comprehensive Review.” Interdisciplinary International Journal of Advances in Social Sciences, Arts and Humanities 01, no. 01 (2024): 27–34. https://doi.org/10.62674/iijassah.2024.v1i1.003.

Deezer and Ipsos. Industry Survey Finds Most Listeners Cannot Tell AI Music from Human Work. Darwin Beats, 2025.

Eraslan, Ismail. “Artificial Intelligence and the Rewriting of Musical Memory: A Cognitive Perspective.” Science Development 6, no. 3 (July 28, 2025): 114–20. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.scidev.20250603.18.

Fetters, Michael D., Leslie A. Curry, and John W. Creswell. “Achieving Integration in Mixed Methods Designs—Principles and Practices.” Health Services Research 48, no. 6pt2 (December 23, 2013): 2134–56. https://doi.org/10.1111/1475-6773.12117.

Figueiredo, Flavio, Giovanni Martinelli, Henrique Sousa, Pedro Rodrigues, Frederico Pedrosa, and Lucas N Ferreira. “Echoes of Humanity: Exploring the Perceived Humanness of AI Music.” ArXiv Preprint ArXiv:2509.25601, 2025.

Gambirasio, A. “Re: Can Generative AI Ever Replicate the Socio-Spiritual Dimensions of African Musical Arts?” ResearchGate, 2026.

Haskins, Casey. “Is AI a Threat to Human Music? (A Neo-Deweyan Perspective).” The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 83, no. 3 (September 23, 2025): 238–53. https://doi.org/10.1093/jaac/kpaf024.

Kagame, Alexis. Sprache Und Sein: Die Ontologie Der Bantu Zentralafrikas. Kivouvou, Ed. Bantoues, 1985.

Kavusa, J. “Humans and Non-Humans as נפש ח;ה and Ntu-Beings: Ecological Appraisal of Gen 2:7 and 19 in Dialogue with African-Bantu Indigenous Cosmology.” Old Testament Essays 35, no. 2 (January 1, 2022): 149. https://doi.org/10.17159/2312-3621/2022/v35n2a3.

Khalfallah, Donia, and Veronika Keller. “Authenticity, Ethics, and Transparency in Virtual Influencer Marketing: A Cross-Cultural Analysis of Consumer Trust and Engagement: A Systematic Literature Review.” Acta Psychologica 260 (October 2025): 105573. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.actpsy.2025.105573.

Kirui, Amon Kipyegon, Mellitus N. Wanyama, and Madimabe Geoff Mapaya. “Epistemics of African Music Performance: Navigating Knowledge, Tradition, and the Digital Frontier.” African Musicology Online 14, no. 2 (June 24, 2025): 14–24. https://doi.org/10.58721/amo.v14i2.1107.

Kruger, Justin, Derrick Wirtz, Leaf Van Boven, and T.William Altermatt. “The Effort Heuristic.” Journal of Experimental Social Psychology 40, no. 1 (January 2004): 91–98. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0022-1031(03)00065-9.

Lecamwasam, Kimaya, and Tishya Ray Chaudhuri. “Exploring Listeners’ Perceptions of AI-Generated and Human-Composed Music for Functional Emotional Applications.” ArXiv Preprint ArXiv:2506.02856, 2025.

Mapaya, M. G. “Re: Can Generative AI Ever Replicate the Socio-Spiritual Dimensions of African Musical Arts?” ResearchGate, 2026.

Ndonga, J. “Re: Can Generative AI Ever Replicate the Socio-Spiritual Dimensions of African Musical Arts?” ResearchGate, 2026.

Nketia, J. H. K. The Music of Africa. W. W. Norton & Company, 1974.

Nzewi, Meki. “African Music Creativity and Performance: The Science of the Sound.” Voices: A World Forum for Music Therapy 6, no. 1 (March 1, 2006). https://doi.org/10.15845/voices.v6i1.242.

Rix, Jennifer, Benedikt Berger, Thomas Hess, and Christine Rzepka. “The Algorithm Discount: Explaining Consumers’ Valuation of Human- versus Algorithm-Created Digital Products.” Journal of Management Information Systems 42, no. 2 (April 3, 2025): 633–68. https://doi.org/10.1080/07421222.2025.2487308.

Rutsate, Jerry. “Ngoma Materiality and Instrumentality: Reconfiguring Malawian Indigenous Music Digitization for Global Music Appreciation.” In De-Neocolonizing Africa, 449–61. Cham: Springer Nature Switzerland, 2024. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-66304-8_25.

Sergeev, D. “Can Generative AI Ever Replicate the Socio-Spiritual Dimensions of African Musical Arts?” ResearchGate, 2026. https://www.researchgate.net/post/Do_audiences_value_music_as_an_autonomous_sonic_object_or_as_a_communicative_act_of_human_intent.

Soundverse. “The Authenticity Gap: Human Perception and the Aesthetic Valuation of AI-Generated Music,” 2025.

Stammer, David, Hannah Strauss, and Peter Knees. “Perception of AI-Generated Music–The Role of Composer Identity, Personality Traits, Music Preferences, and Perceived Humanness.” ArXiv Preprint ArXiv:2512.02785, 2025.

Turing, A. M. “I.—Computing Machinery And Intelligence.” Mind LIX, no. 236 (October 1, 1950): 433–60. https://doi.org/10.1093/mind/LIX.236.433.

Yende, Sakhiseni Joseph. “Towards a Theory of Indigenosociomusicology: African Perspectives on Indigenous Knowledge, Social Meaning, and Decolonial Music Studies.” Eastern African Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences 5, no. 1 (2026): 61–71.

Zentner, Marcel, Didier Grandjean, and Klaus R. Scherer. “Emotions Evoked by the Sound of Music: Characterization, Classification, and Measurement.” Emotion 8, no. 4 (2008): 494–521. https://doi.org/10.1037/1528-3542.8.4.494.

Zhou, Yongxin, Yuhui Wang, and Jiayu Su. “A Study on Factors Influencing Music Enthusiasts’ Behavioural Intention to Use Generative AI for Music Composition Based on an Expanded Technology Acceptance Model.” Scientific Reports 15, no. 1 (December 29, 2025): 44802. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-025-28532-2.

Zlatkov, Dimiter, Jeff Ens, and Philippe Pasquier. “Searching for Human Bias Against AI-Composed Music,” 308–23, 2023. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-29956-8_20.

Amon Kipyegon Kirui is a lecturer in the Department of Music and Performing Arts at Kabarak University, Kenya, and an adjunct lecturer at the African Musicology Institute, University of Venda, South Africa. His research examines digital music economies, platform capitalism, and the influence of generative artificial intelligence on African musical arts, alongside the decolonisation of African music studies and questions of sonic coloniality. Working at the intersection of empirical audience research and African epistemology, he draws on Ngoma theory and related indigenous frameworks to interrogate authenticity, emotional resonance, and cultural value in contemporary music. He is also an active performer and practitioner embedded in East African and pan-African music culture.

– Kirui, Amon Kipyegon. “Does the Listener Care? Emotional resonance and connection in the age of Algorithmic Music.” E-Journal of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences 7, no.8 (2026): 2242 – 2257. https://doi.org/10.38159/ehass.2026785

© 2026 The Author(s). Published and Maintained by Noyam Journals. This is an open access article under the CCBY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).

Articles in this Issue

About Journal