What determines our music tastes?
Music is much more than just a listening experience; it’s also a profoundly personal experience that transcends boundaries and brings people together. It’s a weapon and a sanctuary all in one. It provides the tools for strength, empowerment, and togetherness. In the poetic words of Maya Angelou, it serves as a “refuge”, a place where you can “crawl into the space between the notes and curl my back to loneliness”. So, if music is a universal force, why do our music tastes diverge so significantly? Consider classical music, for instance: for one, it’s a cherished haven, a comforting home, while for another, it’s a descent into sonic torment.
Our propensity for specific musical genres is a multifaceted phenomenon. To thoroughly understand our music preferences, we need to consider a multitude of factors: upbringing, social circles, political and societal affiliations, worldviews, mental health, and so on. Dr Catherine Loveday, a cognitive neuroscientist at the University of Westminster, put it quite powerfully when she compared music and comedy: just as complex comedy hinges on audience familiarity with cultural context, our music tastes often derive from our understanding of cultural and contextual nuances.
Consider this: different communities may hold music in high esteem due to cultural traditions, while for some, it serves as a potent tool for political activism. In this way, music can become an integral facet of our identity, akin to other defining characteristics of our personalities. Throughout history, numerous musical movements have flourished by doing just that. Take punk, for instance; beyond its impressive musical repertoire, it cultivated a subculture that resonated with people seeking a collective expression of their anger directed at the societal elite.
While there are an endless amount of avenues that we could go down when exploring the external factors that determine our music tastes, plus reasons why we even like music in the first place, there are also a set of psychological ones that might help us to understand it all a little bit more. Studies in neuroscience, for example, have unveiled a fascinating connection between music and our brain’s reward system. When we listen to music, our brain’s intricate network of neurons responds by releasing dopamine, AKA the “feel-good” chemical.
Dopamine is known to play a vital role in shaping our behaviours and preferences. When we hear music that resonates with us, it triggers the release of dopamine, creating a welcomed sense of pleasure. Therefore, if someone has found solace in rock music since their childhood, it’s likely that they’ll return to this in moments when their feel-good factor is down.
Ultimately, we’re more likely to gravitate toward certain music that resonates with us on a deep, intrinsic level. The intricate evolution of our brains allows us to identify and react to the emotional signals and melodic structures in music, reinforcing our inclination to favour one or two particular musical genres over others.
What’s more, our affinity for revisiting songs that we love can be attributed to our innate fondness for predictability. This offers a sense of comfort, which becomes especially valuable during periods of elevated stress. Therefore, it’s not really all that surprising when we experience a knee-jerk joyful reaction when we hear the first notes to ‘Mr. Brightside’. Familiarity can be our most considerable comfort.
In essence, the reasons behind our specific music tastes is an intensely intricate concept, shaped by a diverse range of internal and external factors. It can be seen as a substantial blend of both nature and nurture, evoking the age-old debate surrounding the origins of our tastes and inclinations.
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