Cambridge study links musical taste, personality
For most of my life, it was laughably easy to peg down my musical inclinations. Until about a decade ago, I devoted the vast majority of my time, energy and enthusiasm into absorbing anything and everything related to traditional Irish music.
The fact that my tastes were so narrow never bothered me until I was hired for this job. At that point, broadening my horizons struck me as a fairly prudent notion.
So in 2009 — apparently in an attempt to bankrupt myself — I dreamed up the Essential Listening Project. For a year, I committed to a weekly ritual of buying and listening to records culled from a list of hundreds of must-hear recommendations from readers, co-workers, family and friends.
Through the ELP, I discovered an enduring love for Paul Simon courtesy of “Graceland.” I decided that REM was tuned into some kind of cosmic truth when recording “Automatic for the People.” I explored albums that laid the groundwork for rock ’n’ roll, blues and hip-hop and, through them, gained deeper appreciation for the artists who followed in their wake.
Mission accomplished. Horizons broadened.
Having long since established the true breadth of my interests, I was fascinated last week to read a recent University of Cambridge study linking musical taste to one’s “cognitive style.”
More empathetic individuals, researchers found, tend to like music that is “mellow,” “unpretentious” or “contemporary,” such as R&B, country, folk and Europop. People who “like to analyze rules and patterns” were fans of genres that are more intense, complex and avant garde, such as metal, punk or certain kinds of jazz.
Beyond genre delineations, the study pegged empathetic individuals as preferring low-energy music and sad songs with “emotional depth.” Their analytical counterparts, on the other hand, gravitated toward positive, energetic music that possesses “cerebral depth.”
Thanks to the ELP, I can definitively say that I fit neatly in neither camp. I’m as likely to listen to a folksy downer like Bruce Springsteen’s “Nebraska” as a poppy upper like Tokyo Police Club’s “Champ.”
But that’s the nature of loving music. It’s the buoy you cling to whether the seas are calm or roiling. Sometimes, you’re so happy you’ll dance on the rooftops to whatever pop song is on the radio; other times, you’ll want nothing more than to shut out the world and lose yourself in a tragic ballad (see last week’s column).
So, kudos for an interesting study, Cambridge, but I’m pleased to report that I’m an outlier.