Op/Ed - Does a Person’s Music Taste Determine Their Personality?

By Draven St.George

Music is meant to bring people together. It unifies them with its important messages and different rhythms, but can it also be what separates people? People tend to use music as a form of self-expression and, for some people, that extends to revolving their whole personality around the genre or artist that they prefer. Unfortunately, this aspect of making your music taste your whole personality is an inaccurate representation of the large number of layers of a person’s personality. 

Think about this, what kind of person do you think about when you hear “someone who likes rap,” most of the time you either think of someone who looks like a rapper or you think of yourself, if you like rap. While both of these could be deemed as correct, they are not nearly encompassing all of the wide array of people that listen to rap music. This same application of stereotypes could be said for many different genres: rock, electronic, country, etc. We all have unconscious biases that place an initial image on someone when we hear their music taste, so why do some people consider it such a defining factor in life when it comes to dating or finding friends?

I will admit, studies have shown that there are subtle similarities between people’s personalities and the music they listen to, but this is putting emphasis on the subtle. However, it is based on these subtle similarities that bring people of similar music tastes together. It’s common that your best friends are often those who have a similar taste because people of different music styles clash (especially when it comes to who gets the AUX cord). So, while it is true that people of a similar music taste are often ones that get along, that doesn’t correlate with the idea of a personality. It does, however, seem as though personality doesn’t relate as much to the music you listen to, but the way you react to different kinds of music.

That idea seems fuzzy, but it is the truth. So, while people’s music taste doesn’t make up someone’s personality, it’s the reason and reaction to why they like that music that makes up their personality. Going back to the thought about people who like rap music, while of course people will put them into a group because they like rap, their levels of personality are based on why they started listening to it and how it empowers or fulfills them.

Don’t press the brakes on someone just because they listen to a piece of certain music; there may be a deep emotional reason why they listen to that music, and that reason could be the same as why you listen to your music. Genres and albums may seem like the surface level, but they can really bring people into deep places and help them feel certain ways, but it’s our job to understand why they bring people into those places; not just placing them in the box of their preferred genre.