I am one of those people that spend too much time with headphones in and finds any excuse to have the radio on. Okay, maybe not the actual radio, but I love to blast Pandora and Spotify from my Amazon Echo. As much as I enjoy music, I can never answer questions with the word ‘favorite’: Favorite band? Favorite artist? Favorite genre? I don’t have one. I tend to have songs that I deem as anthems but those change too.
Why does any of this matter? Well, some people believe you can define a person by the music in their phone. Even science seems to agree. For example, music psychology scholar Adrian North, PhD, designed a study that tested the correlation between musical preferences and personality types.
Here’s the breakdown of North’s work from Medical Daily and Reader’s Digest:
Rap/Hip-Hop: high self-esteem, outgoing, not very eco-friendly
Heavy Metal: gentle, low self-esteem, reserved, and comfortable with themselves
Classic/Indie Rock: low self-esteem, creative, lazy, headstrong
Electronic/Dance: sociable, headstrong, outgoing, creative
Classical: high self-esteem, introverted, high earners, eco-friendly
Pop: high self esteem, hard working, outgoing, low creativity, nervous
Country: unpretentious, empathetic, agreeable, and less open to other genres
Yes, I know there are plenty of genres and blended genres missing. I decided to stick with these as loose categories when dissecting my Pandora. For me that means crossing off heavy metal, electronic, and classical. That’s right, I will listen to Ginuwine right after singing all the words to Green Day and have Alessia Cara next in the queue. According to the personality breakdown, I am a walking contradiction; and if I gave a stranger my Pandora password, odds are they would have more questions than answers. And I think that makes complete sense.
Music speaks to everyone differently and our choices tend to fluctuate with our moods. Some of us have strong convictions about particular genres and artists. Some of us have no clue who the singers on the radio are but know the words to every song that comes on. Maybe some of the personality characters for music you love fits and some don’t. I mean I like Jason Aldean and Maroon 5, so who am I to judge?
You can read more about personality traits and musical preferences here.