Music and Your Personality

Music is the artful arrangement of sounds across time. Music is part of virtually every culture on Earth but it varies widely among cultures in style and structure. Everyone listens to music, but we don’t all enjoy listening to the same songs. What Does Your Taste In Music Reveal About Your Personality? Research conducted suggests that knowing the type of music you listen to can actually lead to surprisingly accurate predictions about your personality. Does your taste in music reveal information about your personality? For example, researchers found that people could make accurate judgments about an individual’s levels of extraversion, creativity and open-mindedness after listening to ten of their favorite songs. Extraverts tend to seek out songs with heavy bass lines, while those who enjoy more complex styles such as jazz and classical music tend to be more creative and have higher IQ-scores.   MUSICAL STYLES VERSUS PERSONALITY TRAITS Our taste in music can influence everything from the way we act to the way we dress. Does this mean that the music we choose to listen to reflects our personalities? We’re drawn to certain genres because we relate to them in some way. According to the questionnaires, people who like blues, rap, opera, reggae, and classical music all have high self-esteem. Indie and rock/heavy metal fans suffer from low self-esteem and a lack of motivation, but they’re both creative. Country folks are hard working, and those favouring soul are gentle and outgoing. Findings reveal some truth in stereotypes, such as that dance fans are creative and classical fans are introverts, but they also challenge a few. For instance, rock/heavy metal people are often thought to be rough around the edges, but surveys suggest they’re actually gentler and calmer. There are also quite a few similarities between genres that aren’t thought to mesh well, like rock/heavy metal and reggae. Below is a list of different types of music and the characteristic traits that are said to accompany them: -Energetic and Rhythmic: confident, liberal-minded, gregarious, athletic and feels attractive. -Upbeat and Conventional: trusting, hardworking, feels attractive, helpful and politically conservative. -Reflexive and Complex: open-minded, politically liberal, creative, intelligent, tolerant and enjoys aesthetic experiences -Intense and Rebellious: athletic, energetic, adventurous, intelligent, and inquisitive.   Pop Do you prefer to listen to the top 40 hits? If so, chances are that you also tend to be extraverted, honest and conventional. While pop music lovers are hard-working and have high self-esteem, researchers suggests that they tend to be less creative and more uneasy. Rap and Hip/Hop In spite of the stereotype that rap lovers are more aggressive or violent, researchers have actually found no such link. Rap fans tend to have high self-esteem and are usually outgoing. Country Country music fans are typically hardworking, conventional and outgoing. While country songs are often centered on heartbreak, people who gravitate towards this genre tend to be very emotionally stable. Rock / Heavy Metal Despite the sometimes aggressive image that rock music and heavy metal project, researchers found that fans of this style of music are usually quite gentle. They tend to be creative, but are often introverted and may suffer from low self-esteem. Indie According to researchers, they also tend to be less hard-working and less gentle. Passivity, anxiousness and low self-esteem are other common personality characteristics. Dance According to researchers, people who prefer dance music are usually outgoing and assertive. Classical Classical music lovers are typically more introverted, but are also at ease with themselves and the world around them. They are creative and have a good sense of self-esteem. Jazz, Blues and Soul People who enjoy jazz, blues or soul music were found to be more extraverted with high self-esteem. They also tend to be very creative, intelligent and at ease. The reason people sometimes feel defensive about their taste in music might be related to how much it relates to attitudes and personality. “People do actually define themselves through music and relate to other people through it.”    

About the Author Eru Kobe Godwin is a poet, designer, and a writer at connectnigeria.com.   He is also the CEO at Cypress Concepts: corporate and casual shirt designers and stylists.

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This article was first published on 28th June 2012

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