Which one are you?

[Spiritinthesky]

Sept 5th 2008, A study of more than 36,000 people from around the world concluded that musical tastes and personality type were closely related.

The research, which was carried out by Professor Adrian North of Heriot Watt University, Edinburgh in the UK suggested classical music fans were shy, while heavy metal fans were gentle and at ease with themselves.

Fans of Indie music had low self-esteem and were not hard working, fans of Rap music had high self-esteem and were outgoing. Country & Western fans were hardworking and outgoing, Reggae fans were creative but not hardworking, and fans of chart pop had high self-esteem, were not creative, but where hardworking and outgoing.

Which one are you?

From www.thisdayinmusic.com

[Ed Goist]

I am a fan of blues music...We are realists and we tend to discredit studies that suggest there is a correlation between the type of music folks like and their personality traits. :grin:

[Geoff B]

I shared this article with students in my class the other day. We concluded that while the findings were interesting and seemed to fit, they are very general (creativity was linked to nearly all the music styles from the article we read) and really just led to stereotyping. Folks have all sorts of reasons to like what they like, but they don't always choose the same thing for the same reason. Of course, I wonder what kind of music a contradicting skeptic would like?

[JEStanek]

What if you like a whoe bunch of stuff? I'm kinda hardworking and creative in some ways and not so much in others...

Jamie

[Santiago]

One study isn't really scientifically significant for starters.

All I can say is that people from Jamaica are famously hardworking. Many Jamaicans living in New York work four different jobs each day. I have to think that a good many Jamaicans would consider themselves Reggae fans, which the study says are not hardworking people. Something is off the mark here.

[Ivan Kelsall]

Studies such as that are interesting,but can hardly be called conclusive. I love all forms of music,provided it's 'musical' (that rules out Rap) from Opera all the way through to Heavy Metal. I adore classical music,always have done but you'd never call me shy,that's possibly due to my affection for Metallica & ZZ Top.
I consider myself to be an outgoing very helpful,friendly sort of person,in fact i'm so terrificly nice,you'd all want to give me your Mandolins !,:))
Ivan~:>

[Bertram Henze]

Music classification and personality features are so broad that everything is bound to fit, a truth so fuzzy it does not mean anything.

I liked Jethro Tull and Genesis but not Doors and Rolling Stones - so did I like Rock or not?

An outgoing person is someone who shows off his personality - or what he wants you to believe to be his personality. You'll never know. Mr. Obama and Mr. Mussolini in the same category :))

I think the only people really to beware of are those that like no music at all. Yes I know - that includes philosopher Emmanuel Kant, Amish people and Khmer Rouge warriors from Cambodia, but none of those I regret not to have ever met personally.

I like Irish Traditional - the music of people with personalities never conclusively understood, stubbornly refusing to be classified. :cool:

[mrmando]

What makes you think the Amish (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amish_music) don't like music?

I am a huge fan of 20th-century SERIALism, a type of music that takes great sKILL to compose and pERform. What kind of person does that make me?

[Plamen Ivanov]

I grew up with classical and rock music (including heavy metal), so according to the research results i'm shy, gentle and at ease with myself. :-) Also known as the "BaRock" type... :-)

[Mandolin Mick]

I like Classical, Bluegrass, Italian mandolin and classic rock (like the Beatles).

I think that musical taste is like taste in food. We all have different degrees of interest and these change as we are introduced to new things.

[woodwizard]

I am a huge fan of Old-time music. We are creative and highly intelligent ... :) :grin:

[D C Blood]

I like Bluegrass, then is bluegrass, then newgrass, trad. bluegrass. I like bluegrass..:grin:.

[journeybear]

... heavy metal fans were gentle and at ease with themselves...

Really??? :disbelief: :confused: :))

I love rock 'n' roll / Put another dime in the jukebox, baby! :cool: :mandosmiley:

OK - I was wondering where was rock 'n' roll on that list, so I found the article in The Independent. (http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/news/classical-to-rap-music-lovers-have-much-more-in-common-than-you-would-think-919553.html)

What your music says about you

Indie: Devotees have low self-esteem and are not very hard-working, kind or generous. However, they are creative.
Rock 'n' Roll: Fans have high self-esteem and are very creative, hard-working and at ease with themselves, but not very kind or generous.
Blues: High self-esteem, creative, outgoing and at ease with themselves.
Classical: Classical music lovers have high self-esteem, are creative and at ease with themselves, but not outgoing.
Heavy metal: Very creative and at ease with themselves, but not very outgoing or hard-working.
Reggae: High self-esteem, creative, outgoing, kind, generous and at ease with themselves, but not very hard-working.
Country & Western: Very hard-working and outgoing.
Dance: Creative and outgoing but not kind or generous.
Rap: High self-esteem, outgoing.

Just so you know, I consider myself pretty generous (just a bit poor at the moment) and kind to a fault. And I still like rock 'n' roll! (And bluegrass is OK, too, I guess, even if it wasn't in the study. Jazz? Eh ...)

[JeffD]

What kind of music makes you handsome and rich?

[journeybear]

Opera! :))


(Definitely not bluegrass ... :whistling: ... )


Sorry, but the parameters for this study were:

self-esteem
hard-working
kind
generous
creative
outgoing
at ease with themselves

Handsome and rich? Time for a new study. ;)

[Dan Hoover]

well then,i must be a real mess..:confused::grin::confused:

[journeybear]

We all are, if this study proves nothing else ... :))

[woodwizard]

What kind of music makes you handsome and rich?

We're making 10's of dollars playing OT ... well into the double digits! ... and we are handsome too ... not! :grin:

[Bertram Henze]

What makes you think the Amish (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amish_music) don't like music?
My only source of knowledge here was the Witness movie - admittedly not much of a reliable base. :redface:


I am a huge fan of 20th-century SERIALism, a type of music that takes great sKILL to compose and pERform. What kind of person does that make me?
Nerd :grin:

[pickloser]

I am a huge fan of 20th-century SERIALism, a type of music that takes great sKILL to compose and pERform. What kind of person does that make me?

Scary. ~:>

[DMosher]

I'm thinking that this study is statistically based... Did you know that 72.5% of all statistics are made up on the spot?

[bobby bill]

Sounds about as scientific as a horoscope. It seems to presume that people like only one kind of music. And if they found such a group to study, certainly one of the unifying characaristics would be closemindedness.

[journeybear]

Spoken like someone whose moon and rising signs are in conflict. ;)

[Matt DeBlass]

I like Irish Traditional - the music of people with personalities never conclusively understood, stubbornly refusing to be classified. :cool:

"The great Gaels of Ireland are the men that God made mad
All their wars are merry, and all their songs are sad"
-Chesteron

[JonZ]

I dismiss this study as not correlating with my preconceived ideas.

[man dough nollij]

I listen exclusively to Acid Mariachi, and I (like most AM aficionados), am a violently moody, manic, outgoing anarchist sociopath hermit. So I guess there is something to this after all... :whistling:

[journeybear]

If that were what is on AM radio, I would start listening again. :grin:

[wamjr52]

I will have to go with D C Blood and JonZ. I like bluegrass, bluegrass gospel, some newgrass, early country, (before "The Nashville Sound", and what every they call it now). And an like JonZ if folks want to disagree, then thats fine. My third wife hated BG, so when I had to ride in her car she would play that 70-80's EZ rock to aggravate me. So I would aggravate her by singing every word to every song. I did not like that music but had a knack for remembering words, it would frost her butt as she did not a word to a single BG song. How lucky am I, my new wife loves BG.

[Denny Gies]

I love bluegrass....do I need more medication?

[man dough nollij]

I love bluegrass....do I need more medication?

More cowbell!

[journeybear]

I love bluegrass....do I need more medication?

Fortunately, it comes in liquid form, is readily available, you don't need a prescription, and is legal if you're old enough. The best varieties are still made in small home operations way up in the hills or back in the woods, but if you ask the right people the right way, they'll take care of you ... :whistling:

[Bertram Henze]

The study proves that its authors are self-creative with hard going esteem and desperately need to work out.

[Ed Goist]

A few questions for the authors of the study: If a person changes his or her music preferences (let's say radically) does that mean that he or she has undergone a radical personality change?...And if so, is that personality change caused by the change in music preference, or is the change in music preference caused by the personality change...or are they coincidental? :confused:

[Denny Gies]

Journeybear....thanks for the tip; or is that tipsy?

[journeybear]

Ed - Right there I think you put more thought into this study than did the people behind it. ;)

Denny - Cheers! :)

[CES]

More cowbell!

You beat me to it, Lee, probably because my "fever" is so bad...

Stuff like this cracks me up. There's a little truth to stereotypes, but also a little harm in them. As I'll listen to almost anything if it's done well, my preferences change depending on my mood and what's available on my 5 preset FM stations (for example, I refuse to listen to anything by Uncle Kracker on country radio, though I've got nothing against the man personally and will listen to him on other stations...it's just the principle), and...I'm just stopping there...

[EdHanrahan]

Just shows to go ya that there are three kinds of people in the world: Those who divide the world into kinds of people, and those who don't.

[Santiago]

As Groucho Marx once said: "I'd never join a club that would accept someone like me as a member."

[hank]

It's all so simple, just follow the arrows and lines, it's all right there!62578

[Paul Merlo]

This study's generalities would make more sense if it were 36K college students, dont'cha think? Personally, I listen to all kinds of music and my music choice certainly depends on my mood when I cue it up.

Paul

[M.Marmot]

Heck-o time to cut and paste from the much derided WIKIpedia

The Forer effect (also called the Barnum Effect after P.T. Barnum's observation that "we've got something for everyone") is the observation that individuals will give high accuracy ratings to descriptions of their personality that supposedly are tailored specifically for them, but are in fact vague and general enough to apply to a wide range of people. This effect can provide a partial explanation for the widespread acceptance of some beliefs and practices, such as astrology, fortune telling, and some types of personality tests.

[TonyEarth]

i like a lot of music. reggae, salsa, classical, alternative rock, some techno, two or three rap(the rhyme intrigues me, almost nothing else) but mainly classic rock. im creative and hardworking. and i think im generous. of other qualities i dont know. oh and my self esteem is fine. not great but good.

[Bob DeVellis]

I pulled the original article and, as I suspected, the strength of the relationships between individual characteristics and musical preferences was pretty darn weak. So, less that 6% of the variability in preference for specific types of music could be ascribed to personal characteristics. And which characteristics were most strongly associated with musical preferences? First was age and second was gender. that means that things like self-esteem had a pretty meager link to musical preference. The findings were statistically significant because the sample studied was large, around 36,000 people who responded via internet. So, yes, the findings are credible but they're also modest (and that's not a contradiction). In other words, it's true that the factors allow the researchers to predict musical preferences better than just drawing names of musical styles randomly from a hat. But the precision of those estimates, while significantly better than chance, is still very low.

So, don't gloat or wince if you don't like the results for your preferred musical genre. Pretty weak relationships there.

[Fretbear]

It's got more to do with what kind of music you first heard when you were 15 years old or so.

[man dough nollij]

I dig reggae on BG instruments. I think that correlates with my creativity, intelligence, and humility. I'm so incredibly humble that my humility level would probably kill a lesser man. Anybody got tab for "Lively Up Yourself"?

[journeybear]

Ummm, no ... but just the other night, doing a little after-dinner around-the-table pickin', I started playing "No Woman, No Cry," and the guitarist thought I was playing "Wilin'," so that's what we ended up doing. Reggae, country-rock, it's all the same. :mandosmiley:

No tab for that, either. Not for any of that. :)

[EdHanrahan]

... the strength of the relationships between individual characteristics and musical preferences was pretty darn weak. ... The findings were statistically significant because the sample studied was large, around 36,000 people who responded via internet.

You bet it's weak, because the study is already limited to only those who would respond to an internet survey. So they're selecting from only among the types of music that those people listen to!

That leaves out at least one 63-year-old Irish-Catholic married male, plus a whole slew of folks that either A) have real lives, or B) are too busy posting on the MandolinCafe.

[Luke C]

I am a huge fan of 20th-century SERIALism, a type of music that takes great sKILL to compose and pERform. What kind of person does that make me?

I hope you're not the type of person who chops up mandolins and keeps them in the freezer:) lol

[Larry R]

I like Irish Folk (Pogues) so I'm generous.......about buying drinks

[Lynyrd099]

LOL i listen to ever kind of music listed but i mostly listen to Indie and Reggae