Music Identity Factors

I have received information for my project through many different sources. I have received information from surveys, websites and books. My surveys included questions about how people feel about listening to music, and whether they like listening to music or not. Also, I included information from a few books, which´s names I have included in my biography.

The reasons people choose to identify with certain genres of music are variable, but many are rooted in exposure through family. The age at which children are introduced to music is also variable in relation to one’s ‘family cultural formation.’ Turino writes about music as an identity marker multiple times throughout Music as a Social Life, and in both of these quotes explores why people are called to certain genres and how they behave within them. He states that early and extensive exposure to, and participation in a style will give individuals “the habits needed to perform [] in culturally appropriate ways,” ergo making them feel more comfortable within a musical style. But the comfortability isn’t all that matters; people are judged according

For as long as mankind has walked on this earth, music has been an important part of our culture and lifestyles. Each walk of life beats to a different drum. Different cultures use music for many aspects of their lives; for religious purposes, for celebrations, for comfort, for sorrow, for relaxation, for sports, for dances, for energy, for learning, for sleeping, and for sexual experiences. Everyone uses music for something. Music connects with people and reaches them in ways that words simply cannot. Music is a representation of what feelings sound like. It expresses emotion and brings that characteristic out from within us; it tells us a story. Every generation has its’ own sound and different music styles have emerged and become

Cardinal traits were rare and included traits that dominated a person, central traits were more general and descriptive of the individual, secondary traits were situational and related to an individual’s attitude and preference (Srivastava, 2005, p. 231). According to Buchanan (2010), German born psychologist Hans Eysenck devoted much of his career to both personality and intelligence research with much of this time spent in British universities. According to Haggbloom (2002), Eysenck’s research was thoroughly respected with him being the most regularly cited psychologist in science journals at the time of his passing. In 1947 Eysenck’s first book outlined what Eysenck viewed as the two central factors of personality; neuroticism and introversion/extraversion. Five years later Eysenck added another factor; psychoticism (Buchanan, 2010, p. 73). According to Carnivez & Allen (2005), British born psychologist Raymond Cattell centred his studies on factor analysis. His work observed him meticulously reduce Allport’s list of traits to less than two hundred. Applying his factor analysis knowledge, Cattell developed the 16PF questionnaire in 1949. Now in its fifth edition, it is still in wide use to this day (Boyle, Matthews & Saklofske, 2008). According to Tucker (2009), Cattell argued that while Eysenck’s three factor approach to personality was simpler, his own method was more thorough.

New social divides originate from the look that people want to articulate, an image that is projected from the vogue, images which may coincide with a certain way of life. It was revealed in a recent academic journal that listening to certain genre of music can influence the way we consume (Na 2013). Therefore the performers of these genres and other forms of media have some bearing on the way we look and act. Making us feel like we could be that one step closer to the standard of living we desire and giving us a sense of belonging.

Hans Eysenck, a psychologist well known in the field of personality based his trait theory on biological explanations; whereby he believed genetic and biological factors were significant elements of personality (Eysenck 1990). Eysenck also held the view that an individual’s personality traits, or what he referred to as ‘temperament’ was an exact result of one’s genetic make-up (Chamorro-Premuzic & Furnham, 2005). Eysenck encompassed the idea that there was a need to highlight the significant dimensions of personality, create a way in which they could be measured and then link them with experimental procedures. Subsequently, Eysenck developed a model of personality based on a theoretical and statistical approach to the classification of traits. This is

For years, music has been an important part of the lives of millions of people all over the world. Music is one of the earliest forms of expressive art and is part of many cultures. It is used by all people of different ages, ethnicities, and gender for many purposes. For many, music is a part of everyday life, being used in social situations. For others, it may be used just as a way to unwind after a long, stressful day, but can it be used to as a predictor for personality? Do people who experience high/low levels of aggression and self-esteem listen to particular genres? Psychologists have started to study how music exactly can lead to an understanding on human behavior.

So, the next time you are listening to music you can think about how the type of music you listen to describes you and your personality

People listen to music for a variety of reasons. Some listen to music to relax in which it serves as a sort of escape from everyday life, some because they are a fan and follow a certain artist, and others because they can relate the lyrics to their own personal experiences. Whichever the case may be, music has and continues to serve an important role in people’s lives.

Since I listened to songs from different languages, I started forming habits of listening to Hindi film music, often called as Bollywood, which is quite pervasive in Indian society. Being a girl, I was drawn to the glamour and rhythm of the Bollywood songs. Here I am speaking of my own interest-based, gender-based, and age-based cultural cohorts that I formed with other girls. We made it a habit to collect different catchy numbers from different movies, practiced the bollywood dance to develop our skills, as stated by Turino, "For interest-based cohorts, conscious choice is involved in skill development and joining up with others who similarly value or take part in the activity" (115). This cultural cohort also defined my identity in terms

The popular culture of music has changed dramatically over the course of sixty five years. Since this time, new genres of music have been introduced, existing genres have changed, and fixed stereotypes have been associated with certain genres of music. Music has become a major part of popular culture, and is portrayed almost everywhere in first world societies, including on television, radio, at shopping centers, sporting events and in every area of popular culture. Music has become a major part of popular culture, and continues to strive and develop into more and diverse areas of culture.

The main criticism of the 16 Personality Factor analysis is its inability to be replicated. Cattell was not able to persuade other psychologists of his views (Schultz, 2015, p. 225) . It was through investigation into Cattell's model, that Robert McCrae amd Paul Costa identified the “Big Five” factors.

It affects the brain, in return effecting physical appearance and emotion which have a key role in personality development. As Veronica Gonzalez states, a Social Psychology Major, Honors Student, and Research Assistant, “Music is a display of personality identity for individuals: it is a topic of speech upon meeting someone new, a way of communicating experiences, and a manner of expressing culture” (1). Different music genres have been key in figuring out the various outcomes of personality, thus being the several influential factors upon personality. There are numerous ways that genres of music influence, what they influence, and the outcomes of those influences on personality, all the way into specific gender influences. Due to these impacts, it is proven that different genres of music can influence and have specific outcomes on personalities of individuals. The significant relationship between music and personality allow everyone, everywhere, to have an understanding of how substantial music impacts lives, and most essentially,

Coming from a western society, musical identity can often become very clouded. Music is usually produced for a global audience in western culture and intended to top the charts, meaning it can be difficult to find one identity in this music. Saying this doesn’t mean that music wont play a role in ones identity in western culture, on contrary music makes its way into many parts of who we are. From personal experience music has influenced who I spend time with, as a community is created with people who share musical preferences with myself. Another example comes from the University of Glasgow, they preformed a number of studies on music and identity, finding that the music you relate to from your teenage years is music that stays with you throughout your life, making it a part of your identity. Residing in a western culture, we are familiar with the

Music elicits an emotional and cognitive response in all who listen to it. It is powerful at the individual level because “it can induce multiple responses – physiological, movement, mood, emotional, cognitive, and behavioral” (Francis, 2008,