Preferred Music Style Is Tied to Personality
 

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Preferred Music Style Is Tied to Personality | Psych Central

I think it only applies much to the narrower genres.

According to his study, it would appear that pretty much everyone who's not a fan of pop or rap is creative.

This one is my favourite:

Greaaaaaaaaaaat.

I had a hard time believing words like "the relationship between pop music culture and deviant behavior in adolescence" weren't written in the 50's until I looked at the date in the citation. Holy wow, call me biased for being part of "the youth", but that is an incredibly surefire way to make yourself sound out of touch if you ask me. I mean, deviant behavior? Really? They had to use those exact words?

The commentary for the different genres reminds me of one of those Zodiac lists with personality traits for the different signs that gets passed around on the internet so much. At least most of the traits make sense, but "gentle" or "at ease"... what do they mean? Those traits are so vague, I have no idea how I'm supposed to interpret them.

Obvious nonsense.

Well im a pretty laid back, calm and quiet person and I prefer slower, more laid back tunes. Maybe there is a connection there, I don't know.

Here are the results

Blues fans have high self-esteem, are creative, outgoing, gentle and at ease
Jazz fans have high self-esteem, are creative, outgoing and at ease
Classical music fans have high self-esteem, are creative, introvert and at ease
Rap fans have high self-esteem and are outgoing
Opera fans have high self-esteem, are creative and gentle
Country and western fans are hardworking and outgoing
Reggae fans have high self-esteem, are creative, not hardworking, outgoing, gentle and at ease
Dance fans are creative and outgoing but not gentle
Indie fans have low self-esteem, are creative, not hard working, and not gentle
Bollywood fans are creative and outgoing
Rock/heavy metal fans have low self-esteem, are creative, not hard-working, not outgoing, gentle, and at ease
Chart pop fans have high self-esteem, are hardworking, outgoing and gentle, but are not creative and not at ease
Soul fans have high self-esteem, are creative, outgoing, gentle, and at ease

I generally dig Soul, Rap, Blues, and Reagee too.

I don't think it helps that the same few terms are used for every psychological description. Various combinations of "low/high self esteem", "creative" "laid back" may make collecting data easier, because you can ask questions such as "which of the following best applies to you - tick one box only".
But the trouble is that they do not make this study particularly informative, interesting or relevant.

Well state the obvious. Everyone is different and everyone has different musical tastes. It doesn't take a genius to work that one out.

This is pop-psychology bull****.

I know a guy who likes jazz. He's a pretentious wank.

I've bolded the findings that seem very true to me.

Blues fans have high self-esteem, are creative, outgoing, gentle and at ease
Jazz fans have high self-esteem, are creative, outgoing and at ease
Classical music fans have high self-esteem, are creative, introvert and at ease
Rap fans have high self-esteem and are outgoing
Opera fans have high self-esteem, are creative and gentle
Country and western fans are hardworking and outgoing
Reggae fans have high self-esteem, are creative, not hardworking, outgoing, gentle and at ease
Dance fans are creative and outgoing but not gentle
Indie fans have low self-esteem, are creative, not hard working, and not gentle
Bollywood fans are creative and outgoing
Rock/heavy metal fans have low self-esteem, are creative, not hard-working, not outgoing, gentle, and at ease
Chart pop fans have high self-esteem, are hardworking, outgoing and gentle, but are not creative and not at ease
Soul fans have high self-esteem, are creative, outgoing, gentle, and at ease

I mostly agree with the claim about indie fans, as I know many of them. I disagree with the "not gentle" part, though. Maybe "not warm" is a more accurate description. The only finding I think might be way off is about rock/heavy metal fans and to lump the two together could be part of the problem.

Doesn't really help for people who don't listen to just one genre of music. Even then I don't think it offers any interesting information. I'm creative? Very insightful.

That's a good point. I think those who listen to many genres probably are more open-minded and generally more well-rounded as people than their peers.

As this forum has shown in the past, the correlation between rational behavior/lucidity and having a broad musical interest is shaky at best.

I think they mean 'deviant' behaviour as a deviance from the perceived norm as opposed to 'deviant behaviour' as being a poop fetishist or something. Basically, generally speaking, pop music is about adolescent rebellion, about, well... deviating from the norm, to step aside from what the generation before you considered to be their voice within the realm of mainstream media and to find and support your own.


Hell at this point in the game it has become the norm for teenagers to participate in deviant behaviour. Individuality is the new conformity. As a teenager you're expected to rebel and adopt some sort of deviant behaviour as a way of distancing yourself from the generations that came before you and applying your own unique twist to the collective stream of consciousness of our society, we just make sure to fool you into thinking you're doing it because you're unique instead of actually just toeing the line and adhering to the status quo.

That's pretty much what I thought they meant. It just sounded like a preface to talk about "those hooligans on my lawn".

I'll give them credit for painting metal fans a little more sympathetically, I guess, but the study doesn't have an ounce of scientific value as far as I'm concerned.