Many people believe in stereotypes with certain people who listen to certain music. The general idea is that people who listen to hard rock or rap are tougher, stronger people while those who listen to classical or pop are more caring and friendly, but are these stereotypes true, and could there actually be a correlation between what music you listen to and who you are?

An article called Does the music you listen to reflect your personality? (7 genres), posted by Better Traits, suggested this could be the case, although it wouldn’t reflect the stereotypes we thought. 

Research suggests that listening to music has proved to be beneficial to mental health, and that learning what music you like can reflect what kind of person you are. They have found that people who enjoy various types of music have certain psychological features. They even determined that listening to music can affect your personality. 

Pop music listeners have been found to be gregarious, traditional and honest. These people tend to have high self-esteem, but tend to be less innovative and restless

Hip hop and rap listeners are self-assured and content with themselves. These types of songs tend to deal with hard topics, and most listeners tend to live more streetwise than other genres of music

Country and indie listeners are known for being more industrious, traditional and outgoing. These songs typically tend to cover more heartbreak and relationship topics more than others. These listeners tend to be more emotionally secure; they tend to be more conservative and less motivated to change. 

Heavy metal fans are actually more compassionate and creative, but also tend to be shyer and have a lower self of esteem. They like to stand out from the crowd, they also tend to be rebellious or edgy. These listeners are normally depicted as aggressive but more than not they’re shown to be not scared to express themselves. 

I asked several people about this information and how they thought it perceived them.

Rachel Lords:

 “Most of my friends do listen to heavy metal, and [they] tend to be shyer.” 

When I asked her about her music taste, she said she only hates Country, “I listen to all music, besides country, and when you said traits from country, I quickly realized that wasn’t me at all.”

In the end after our interview, she said she does believe in the music relating to personality.

Ali Brittle:

“I like more country and Heavy Metal and being bold and loud is part of my chemistry,” commented Brittle. I asked about how she could see this being present in any of her friends and she mentioned Alexis Schroeder, a girl in her college course classes. “Alexis Schroeder highly represents the heavy metal group.” She and Ali tend to share the same taste in music which they call, white trash rock. 

Whether or not you believe in the relationship between music and personality, there is definitely proof that what type of music you listen to can reflect certain parts of your personality.