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You are what you listen to, says new study of


Still Waters

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Think twice before proudly showing off your iPod playlist. Your choice of music may mark you out as boring, dim and unattractive, according to new research from the University of Cambridge.

The study found that we make assumptions about someone’s personality, values, social class and ethnicity based on their musical preferences.

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Cool find dude

I listen to Rock music, but I'm not irresponsible (though Im emotionally unstable sometimes :P ).

Peace :tu:

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I listen to a variety of music centered around rock n roll.

I listen to progressive rock alot but will also tend to listen to acid rock or new age rock.

I also listen to some classical music and even will enjoy some country music as well.

I also very much enjoy listening to classic music from different ethnicities or cultures.

The last concert I saw was Seal in Atlantic City at the Borgata months ago. Seal is incredible!!!

The last album I bought was "At the Speed of Life" by Billy Sherwood who has also been apart of Yes.

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Rock and New Metal FTW!

and i do think that you can tell how a person is like by the music they listen to :yes:

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I am not surprised, I remember when I was in school you had to be careful what you said because depending on what you listened to you were not cool. I will also admit to having certain prejudices against certain music types, techno and house in specific, to a lesser extent pop.

I personally listen to Indie/General Alternative/Britpop/Rock type stuff but on going out occasions enjoy some good old cheese too.

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I usually pay cash for music CD's instead of a credit card. I don't want a public record of my bad taste in music.

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I'm pretty much with True on this one.

Our music tastes say we are eclectic. :)

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Here is another study which claims to correlate a person's intelligence with their taste in music....

Interesting though probably as noted by the link itself not that accurate. I am not familiar with SAT scores though so a bit confusing.

On the plus side, Counting Crows apparently means you're intelligent, wooohoo!

I listen to CC a lot especially when doing work, a lot of the other bands I like didn't do too bad either from what I can discern, I feel ( probably unjustifiably) pleased with myself now :D

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I enjoy Symphonic/Epic Metal, foreign rap/hip-hop, Goa Trance, and old-time Fascist music. What does that make me?

Split personality :w00t:

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I literally listen to everything.... so i guess that makes me random and unpredictable. I can agree.

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Those with a preference for rock songs are deemed to be “natural rebels”, thoroughly irresponsible and emotionally unstable

i listen to rock music and im none of those things :hmm:

although im a bit irresponsible :P

i dont think this couldve been an accurate study :hmm:

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Emma bought this for me last week its brilliant, its like a blast from the past. brings back a good few memories.

at the moment i like Lady Gaga. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B-TyBVqOa8w&feature=related

so what does this say about me?

Edited by stevewinn
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Well, I listen to a variety of things. From the jazzy hip-hop that Gruvis Malt is known for to melodic hardcore such as Fact. There's even some Weezer and Nature Living thrown in there.

Edited by Nessieman23
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Emma bought this for me last week its brilliant, its like a blast from the past. brings back a good few memories.

at the moment i like Lady Gaga. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B-TyBVqOa8w&feature=related

so what does this say about me?

I think it says you like hot blonds, steve...

I wouldn't read much more into that!!!!

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It should be noted that this is a "study", and, like most all of them, it points to the obvious:

People make assumptions about you based upon your musical preferences.

Duh...

Who didn't know that strange quirk about people?

That we actually pay people to so such things as determine what is readily known to anyone with a lick of rational sense is a never ending source of amazement to me.

Do not confuse this with some actual fact about how you are based upon the music you like to listen to.

It speaks to what it found...things like this:

Classical buffs are seen as ugly and boring, while rock lovers are regarded as emotionally unstable and pop fans are considered to be rather dim.

And yet, "Classical" music included some composers, like Mozart, who were anything but boring (he was a nut, by all accounts). A true appreciation of classical music requires intellect and appreciation for structure and form and mathematics, depending on the composer. It also requires a keen sense of emotional expression. None of that is actually boring. Indeed, some of our greatest rock icons are classically trained musicians.

And "Rock" is so expansive a musical category that it cannot be described. It's various forms range from the sublime and intricate to the banal three chord garage band with a groaning "vocalist" and a drummer who breaks thick cymbals regularly.

So is Jazz similarly undefinable anymore. We see this in the part concerning Jazz:

Jazz fans elicited the most positive response as they were considered to be imaginative, peace-loving liberals with friendly and outgoing natures.

That could be, as far as imaginative is concerned but it's utterly ridiculous to assume political ideology due to muscial preference (it's utterly incorrect, as well as irrelevant, I can tell you from experience). I would question any person involved in the study to define what "Jazz" is. It to ranges from the very mainstream, to the improvisationally obscure, to the energy and intricacy of big band, to fusion, and genre's that resembnle pop with instruments, and those which are as much (if not more) rock as they are jazz...

Knowing many a jazz musician, I would tend to agree that they are imaginative, intellectual people...but they can also be about as earthy and brash as folks can get as well.

Those with a preference for rock songs are deemed to be “natural rebels”, thoroughly irresponsible and emotionally unstable

And what is a "rock song"?

Some death metal screecher? Perhaps it's La Villa Strangiato by Rush? Or Close to the Edge by Yes? Or The Ocean by Led Zeppelin...or some John Cougar Mellencapmp or Bruce Springsteen song?

C'mon...that statement is almost unstable it's so ridiculous.

while pop fans are seen as conventional and calm but lacking in intelligence and wisdom.

And yet...the majority of people are pop music fans??? Who is it that sees them as lacking in intelligence and wisdom and why?

...who sells the most records? Yes or Michael Jackson?

Sure, the Pop Music business is indeed an industry which largely crafts personalities and images, and plays to a public view of what a "star" is supposed to be in looks and demeanor and all that junk, and it does generally play to laziness of mind...but who's "Pop".

Michael Jackson? Any of the plethora of pop diva's that seem to get manufactured frommthe same gentic and behavioral material?

Despite the fact that talent is often sacrificed for looks, and many "pop" people wind up in lots of gried because their personalities and egos are more important than their music, and despite the fact that "pop" today is something very different than it was in the 40's or the 50's, or even the 60's, Pop Music does have it's distinctive minority of true musical talents as well, and all sorts of different people who like something in the genre...

Rap aficionados are viewed as athletic and self-respecting but disorganised and “more hostile” than other music fans.

I can't imagine why that would be news to anyone...

Rap is a category of entertainment that essentially plucked people off the city streets where they rhymed and placed them in recording studios, attached banal ostinatos that a third grader could play, created a behavioral motif for the participants, encouraged banality in lyrical structure and content, and appealed to a very low level of emotional sensitivity and a high level agression...

It's one of the truly distressing developments, and is in fact a sub category of Pop.

...some might argue that it doesn't qualify as music. But that's stretching things a bit far, despite the fact that it is in most forms lacking several standard muscial elements, or at least nominal musical sophistication.

And yet...this doesn't imnply a lack of intelligence in the participants. Some are certainly as dumb as dirt, but there are some who exhibit some imagination and intelligence in their lyrical content...more than most at least.

One might think that the typical fan of rap is agressive, dis-organized, and hostile (apparently, the study says so)...but that's not necessarily so, despite the fact that moist rap is of that nature.

At the same time, everyone responds to all the range of emotions inherent in all the different forms of music. The classicist can let loose to a pop dance track with a great hook from time to time. The jazzer may be found tapping his foot to some rap track he hears at a party...it grabs him or her! And the rocker who likes a wide variety of stuff can be found enjoying the Fifth Dimension and the artistry inherent in what five perfect voices could do to a Jimmy Webb song...

Music is far too diverse in reality for anyone to be pidgeon-holed based upon their prefernces at the moment. Generally speaking, the younger a listener is, the more stuck in a mode he or she is. If they are truly music lovers, as they get older, they appreciate a larger pallet of material from all different genres.

Sure, there are those who can't get off 70's Led Zeppelin and Who Music. There are those who only dig rap, and probably only ever will. There are some folks who like every pop icon that comes along, and have no knowledge of Jazz or Classical music...and there are those who appreciate all of it, and can listen to modern rock, John Coltrane, Sebelius, and Neil Diamond and like it all.

To actually determine a person from his or her musical taste would be a problem for psychology and anthropology, and a decades long study. It's too complicated of a thing.

But that, again is something different than what this article speaks to.

This article speaks to what people think, and how they judge. It doesn't speak to facts...

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