Trollheart

Wouldn't that be rather painful on the eyes?

Seriously though, no: you can't equate someone's IQ with how well-versed/knowledgeable they are with music. It could be just ignorance (if introduced to a genre/subgenre someone who had scoffed at it before may get into it), laziness, lack of interest or time, or a whole lot of reasons why someone might not be into a particular style, or just into one. That of course may change over time, and though you can say, as was mentioned, that age can be a factor in appreciating music, it can also go the other way: some people of a certain age will consider "all today's music is just noise" and refuse to listen to it. How is that any less close-minded than someone saying "Nicky Minaj is da bomb" or whatever, and sticking with that style? And we could be talking about professors, lawyers, doctors here (for the former example, obviously, not the latter!)

And yet, if someone listens to Britney or One Direction or Westlife of Lil this that or the other, does that make them any less intelligent than someone who listens to Mozart, Flaming Lips, Sun O))) or Sigur Ros, or even someone who is heavily into In Flames or Slipknot? Hardly.

You don't have to be intelligent to be into music, but you need to be open-minded and willing to listen to other views in order to be able to enjoy music as a whole. If you want to; some people are happy with their rock and/or roll, or their pop or their classical, and that's fine too, if that's what they want. None of these things impinge on or define a person's IQ in my opinion.

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Kristina85

I think that someones taste in music is primarily a way to express their (his) attitude toward the world. Because music as a medium serves for conveying feelings, attitudes, etc. - JUst my opinion...

Rock N' Roll Clown

I'm totally agree with this. I think that way, too, but if we take a look at the facts, I'm sure that ~90% of the people that listen to classical music have an IQ more than ~120 and only ~20% of the people who listen to Niki Minaj have got IQ more than ~120. So, you can't say if a person is dumb or smart just by the type of music that he listens to, but it can leave you a first impression of this person.

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Neapolitan

Weird Al Yankovic graduated high school at the age of 16 and was the valedictorian of his class. He is a pretty smart guy, so he has to be rewriting some pretty intelligent lyrics, right? So who's writing off whom?

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Scarlett O'Hara

I personally think a multitude of factors like intelligence plays a part. Throw in up bringing, influences and ones environment to correlate with ones tastes.

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Rjinn

Reason in the way I see it reflects intelligence. Is it possible listening to music for absolutely no reason?

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Maiden666

I do not think taste has anything to do with IQ. I know doctors who are metal heads, engineers that are trance fans and complete idiots that like classical. Upbringing and life in general play a bigger part I think than IQ ever will. Life influences taste. You may hate a type of music but then you go out with friends and have an absolute blast listening to this music you hate.. Next thing you know you're buying it. That is not IQ but rather opening your mind a little. Music is not about your IQ, it is about what gets you going, what relaxes you or what you can relate to or I guess in one line, it is what speaks to your soul.

duga

This is an interesting point...I think how someone listens to music might reflect intelligence in some way. In my experience people who are really into prog have been pretty smart. At least nerdy. I think this is because to be really interested in that kind of music, you have to have some kind of appreciation for the technical side of music. However, someone who is into prog might like Coldplay, and according to Pedestrian's graph Coldplay fans can also be dumb. I would imagine, however, that the prog fan would probably be listening to them and dissecting all their time signatures. The low SAT scorer is probably listening to them for their pretty sounds. There are exceptions everywhere, so you would never be able to prove this one way or the other but I know I tend to judge people based on the reasons they listen to certain things.

Even though this isn't totally black and white, I have noticed 2 extremes with metalheads. There are pretty smart guys and then meatheads. This is because metal has the potential to appeal to both of those extremes. The smart guys can appreciate its technical side and the meatheads think it's badass.

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Isbjørn

I know people saying "I only listen to what's on the lists". That's not a good reason, if you ask me.

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PoorOldPo

I dunno, Yes and no. But if you are listening to music to sound intelligent then it is just a front and you are not feeling it, like hipsters.

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