http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080905/lf_ … n_music_dc

Only things I take issue with is how they think Indie Rock lovers lack self-esteem and gentleness, and how people who listen to more relaxing music are more likely to be in lower earnings brackets.

Pretty short article, doesn't say too much, but I think we can expand into a worthier discussion.

What do you think?

Do you think you can conclude what kind of personality a person has by the music they listen to, or do you think one's musical tastes show one's personality?

Strange thing for me was, back in high school, all the "Preppy" girls I knew listened to punk rock; I never would've suspected them of this, or any "Rebellious" tendencies, by looking at their conservative form of dress, high-achieving test scores, and overall mild-mannered personality; it was a kind of "DOES NOT COMPUTE" for me. It makes me wonder where they've been, and what they've gotten themselves into since high school, seeing as how we're all finished with college now.

My simplified answer to the question in the topic line of this thread: No. I don't believe there is much, if any, connection between one's favourite music genres/artists and one's personality. I have met too many contradicting examples in real life to really believe in the supposed connection.

If there is anything concerning music that tells us about someone's personality, I think it lies more in how the individual treats his/her music. Its hard to describe this, but it boils down to if the person has respect for music as an art form - if he/she actively explores is, reflects upon it, is open to new suggestions, etc. - or just turns on the radio or goes out and buys/downloads the most popular albums  by default. I have noticed that this often speaks volumes about people's personalities, while genre preferences usually do not. This is why I can often have very much respect for a fellow music-listener if I know that he/she has respect for music, even though we might not share any favourite music genres/artists.

Also, that study seems to assume that people just listen to one or a few genres. I like artists of almost every genre mentioned in there (except for country, yuck!) and a whole lot of genres not mentioned, so what does that say about me? I'm an introverted outgoing rich low-income creative-but-not-really hard-working person? Reductionist bullshit, the scientific horoscopes of our day.

No, but that's not what the study says. It just says that there's a correlation between personality type and musical preferences. This doesn't mean that once you know someone about someone's musical preferences you can form any definite conclusions about his personality--it just means that you can guess his personality type with a higher probability of being correct (say, 40% instead of 20%, though I'm not sure of the exact numbers because I can't find the study).

Well that means I'm going to be screwed

Just too bad that an individual's personality is far more complex than the categories that such a study probably uses. Many of the words used in the article - rebellious, outgoing, etc. - are open to subjective interpretation, and as for something like "low-income", when did that become a personality trait?

Not to mention the definition of the music styles. There are many different opinions on what artists belong to what genres, and many artists overlap many genres (for example a band like Paradise Lost, that evolved from death metal to synth-pop, crossing many genres inbetween, or Frank Zappa). The subjects in the study were asked to rate how much they liked 104 different types of music, but what does that matter when a mainstream listener would call Nine Inch Nails "industrial" while an industrial purist would call it "synth-pop"? And asking people to rate 104 styles of music is just having overconfidence in them - most people are not familiar with 10, much less 100 styles of music.

These are just some of the possible problems with studies like these. There might be some correlation, but I have strong doubts about the validity of this survey. I think there's a bigger chance of it just ending up confirming stereotypes.

This pretty much explains why fans of [insert whoever you hate] are assholes.

There are several problems which must be considered.

1. Musical taste is often due to early exposure. My grandpa did not grow up in the 80s, for example.

2. Some music may be forced on people and they become used to it.

3. Some music may be restricted from people and they listen to it only to feel rebellious.

In order for a study to produce accurate results, it would be necessary to inhibit a large group of people from hearing music for many years. They would then be exposed to large amounts of different music and then be allowed to choose which styles they like, while not being allowed access to the opinions of others.

That would be necessary to establish a causal relationship between musical preferences and other characteristics. But whether there's a correlation is an interesting question in and of itself, and to answer that all you have to do is collect data and measure the correlation. This doesn't tell you anything about what causal mechanisms might be at work, but I doubt that the author of the study is making any such claims.

counterpoint,, i worked in a grocery store for 10 years, and i never got used to michael bolton or the dirty dancing soundtrack...

Haha, sure, but what would this do to their personalities on the other hand? If some scientist followed you around or put you in some kind of music-less isolation for a few years just to make sure you weren't listening to music, I imagine your personality would probably take a few paranoid dents. And before long you'd probably see a correlation between said scientist's face and the poor subject's fist. So while one variable (music preference) might be stable, the other (personality) would definitely not be.

The desired "clean slate"-state is obviously impossible to achieve in this case: we all have our preconceptions, preferences, and prejudices when it comes to music, which is why we would be wise to take the results of the survey with a grain of salt.

Hay guys, I found out the team also researched RPG/action RPG music. Here's what they found out:

The Legend of Zelda music: likes to wear green and solve puzzles. Owns a sword purportedly received from an old man.

Final Fantasy music: harbors delusions of megalomania and imminent apocalypse. Also prone to moodiness and angst, possibly due to the former.

Ys music: likes to bump into things, if you know what I mean.

Suikoden music: tendency to seek out a career in military or politics. Obsessed with numerology and astrology.

Earthbound/Mother music: probably does drugs. Worst case scenario: has all the symptoms, but isn't an actual user.

Star Ocean / Tales music: ADD / ADHD personality, indecisive about hobbies. Will try cooking, martial arts, cubism, pharmacy and self-medication, trombone playing and wiccaism, often with mediocre or disastrous results.

...sounds just about right. I guess they're on to something.

LOL

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I haven't seen their data, so no comment on that, but for sure, one's musical taste is indicative of one's personality. This certainly doesn't work for everyone, but as a whole, I'm sure generalizations hold true. Same thing can be argued for many other facets of life. Your job, your taste in games, your taste in movies, your taste in women (or men), are all indicative of your personality. People are complex, so you can't pigeon-hole one person, but you can pigeon-hole a group of people and get a rough idea.

cheers,

-avatar!

Yep.  I do that for a living.