An oddly broad-brushed research report out of Edinburgh makes the radical discovery that the type of music you like has some correlation to your personality. In what is claimed to be the largest such study ever undertaken, Professor Adrian North surveyed 36,000 people about their musical preference and their personality, then analyzed the resulting clusters. Any surprises? Says Prof. North:
“One of the most surprising things is the similarities between fans of
classical music and heavy metal. They’re both creative and at ease but
not outgoing.“The general public has held a stereotype of heavy metal fans being
suicidally depressed and of being a danger to themselves and society in
general. But they are quite delicate things.”
Oddly, that’s the stereotype I had of classical music fans.
To be fair, the actual survey for the study does ask interesting questions about musical experience and personal meaning. The personality aspect seems only the news-grabbing headline of what might be fairly useful analysis (if you can find the actual study, please let me know) . And besides, you can’t fault a university that also hosts the International Centre for Brewing and Distilling!
[ Thanks to the Dunc-man for the link! ]
…and don’t forget the fans of BOTH classical music and heavy metal. Much more common in my 22-year old daughter’s generation. One week the opera, next, black thrash-metal from Xinjiang….
I recall Performance Today/NPR tenure a while back had a report that bears on this discussion.
A high school student did a laboratory experiment with three groups of white rats: one control group had no music, the second listened to Mozart, the third group had Heavy Metal.
First two groups did OK; but had to end the experiment when the third group of rats killed each other!
I suggested to the emcee, Fred Child, that he pursue this further as a matter of some importance, but so far nothing has occurred. I suspect NPR retains proprietary rights and thwarts its intrinsic relevance to all human white rats.