Musical tastes and personality

[sbp.livejournal.com]

Are musical tastes and personality related?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/7598549.stm

Doesn't seem to match me, but what do you think?

Comments

[skyecaptain.livejournal.com]

I think this gets back to something I was discussing with dickmalone and a few others 'round here re: the role of surveys in learning more about what we might call "group tastes." The main issue being that group's don't have a collective taste, rather their individual tastes align (part of what makes them identifiable as a group in the first place). Accordingly, I don't see how you could do a study of any real validity without doing fairly exhaustive qualitative analysis on individual subjects. I would think a more successful study would find groups of fans -- dedicated, casual, all sorts of 'em -- and sitting down with each one of them and having them just spill their guts about their lives, their thoughts, their opinions, their etc. The methodology and data collection would be a nightmare, and no one would find the results to "conclude" anything, because there likely be no significant correlations to be found in a "run this through SPSS" way -- or, there would be lots of correlations, but the nature of the study wouldn't allow for many obvious causal relationships. As it should be. (This is why I'd rather read what lots of people have to say for themselves than attempt a study on the people who may or may not say anything. And anyway, what people say may or may not line up with how they really listen, their motivations for presenting the personality they do, etc. etc. etc.)

[skyecaptain.livejournal.com]

Um, someone can go through and copy edit that mess if they like.