From Ad Rem:
Music and What It Says about You: According to a recent study, what music you listen to could tell a lot about who you are physically, emotionally, and intellectually.
People who favour Madonna's Material Girl, for example, are likely to be cheerful, outgoing and reliable. [...] If on the other hand, someone prefers the Rolling Stones' Brown Sugar, they are likely to possess more of an inquiring mind, enjoy taking risks, and consider themselves to be pretty intelligent.
I'm not sure what my music collection says about me. I listen to a wide range of music -- from heavy metal to gregorian chants, to opera, to country, to bluegrass, to jazz, to improv, to British rock, to classic, to world, to Indian, to relaxation music...and that's just what is coming to mind right now.
The study itself is not online (The Do Re Mi's of Everyday Life: The Structure and Personality Correlates of Music Preferences by Peter J. Rentfrow and Samuel D. Gosling, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology) but a news release is:
A new study from researchers at The University of Texas at Austin that examines how music preference is related to personality found that most musical choices fall into one of four broad categories: Reflective and Complex, Intense and Rebellious, Upbeat and Conventional, or Energetic and Rhythmic. The results of the study appear in the June issue of the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, published by the American Psychological Association.
Researchers Dr. Samuel Gosling and Peter Rentfrow found that musical preference could reliably be sorted into one of these four categories and that these preferences are related to personality, intelligence and values.
Like Ad Rem, I'm not clear what my collection means. Back in the time of vinyl records, I set four items on a music store's checkout counter. To the cashier's consternation, I bought: Let it Be redone by an industrial rock band, The Brandenburg Concerti, a tape of Buddy Holly hits, and a Glenn Miller album. The stack of CDs sitting on my desk offer Appalachian, Brazilian, Spanish, African, jazz, classical piano, blues, and ragtime music.
In my case, the collection probably reflects both formal musical training from a young age and exposure to many types of music. I've learned to listen to new music many times to become familiar with the genre, before deciding whether I like it.
So musical choice to me is not a stance, but a taste preference. Is this preference value-driven? Probably, although values and taste are not interchangable. Perhaps the study's use of undergraduates influenced the robustness of the results. I'd guess musical taste and values would have a stronger connection for undergraduates than for other age cohorts. Like many adults, I keep some music around for nostalgia and familiarity. The result? It probably is easier to judge my age range than my outlook or values by my music collection.
Posted at July 11, 2003 04:01 PM | TrackBack