What does your taste of music say about your character?
Music is an indispensable factor in our lives. Preference of genre is one of the first pieces of information we want to learn, when we meet new people. We feel an affinity for people who enjoy the same genre as us, as we are aware of the fact that the music we listen to, reflects ourselves. It has the power to gather people around a certain or similar style.
According to research, our characteristics have a great impact on the music we listen to. Here are 5 popular genres and general characteristics of their listeners;
Classical Music
In the past, people used to think of classical music as a genre mostly listened to by the elderly. Yet, almost a third of listeners are under the age of 35. Besides, many people don’t even realize that they are listening to classical music while listening to the ‘’relaxing piano genre’’. Therefore, it would not be wrong to say that classical music has more listeners than other popular genres, such as R&B and hip-hop.
Everyone knows that listening to classical music has many benefits. Classical music listeners are generally considered intelligent people. It is proven that listening to Mozart can temporarily enhance scores on one portion of an IQ test. We call this situation as ‘Mozart Effect’. Moreover, it has been determined that classical music listeners are mostly creative, introvert, and confident.
Pop
Pop genre is one of the most popular music genres. It is almost impossible for a person to spend a day without being exposed to pop even if s/he is not a lover of pop music.
According to research conducted by Emporia State University, people experience a decrease in feelings of tension and unrest after listening to pop for a period of time.
People who enjoy listening to pop are typically outgoing, truthful, and conventional. Unfortunately, it has been observed that these people are less creative and more anxious than other people.
Metal
Although it may not seem like it for those who do not like metal music, it provides calmness and peace to those who listen to metal music. Also, listening to heavy metal is effective in reducing negative emotions.
Metal genre listeners are distinctive compared to others. Metal listeners are mostly introverted, intuitive, calm, and gentle people.
Hip-Hop and Rap
Hip-hop is defined by its listeners as a music genre with self-expression and reality. It’s listeners mostly consists of teens and young adults.
Hip-Hop is a controversial genre. Many adults think that some rappers in the genre encourage teen listeners to drug use, violence, and materialize women. While some studies find this correct, some studies state that the reason for behaviours cannot be directly related to the genre of music.
In recent years, some high schools have been using hip-hop therapy to help young people express their feelings without resorting to violence. This therapy not only improves creativity and musical talent, but also contributes greatly to mental health.
The general characteristics of hip-hop fans are generally extraversion, high self-esteem. In addition to these, sociability and energetic are also observed among common features.
Rock
Rock has a wide range of listeners. It includes many genres, and its characteristics vary from genre to genre.
According to research, the general characteristics of listeners are that they are intuitive and relaxed. While classic rock listeners are mostly hard-working, indie rock listeners are a bit lazy and relatively less self-confident people. However, the level of creativity among indie rock listeners is quite high compared to other genres.
