If Your Musical Taste Changed, Would You Still Feel Like You?
Recent findings show the importance of aesthetic preferences for who we are.
KEY POINTS
- People perceive some features as essential to their identity and others as optional.
- Research suggests that people consider their preferences for music, art, and literature to be essential to who they are.
- Nevertheless, aesthetic preferences sometimes change quickly and without people noticing.
"When we think of ourselves, some of our features seem optional. They could have been otherwise; it would not have changed anything. If I was not able to wiggle my ears, this would not make a huge difference in the grand scheme of things. This is a contingent feature of mine. But some other features we don’t take to be optional. These features are essential to who we are. And there are experimental ways of separating the essential and the optional features of our self-image. Study participants are asked odd questions such as these: “Imagine that tomorrow you wake up much smarter than you are now. Or much less smart. Would that still be you? Or imagine that you wake up kinder, or skinnier, or a Republican, or less interested in yoga. Would that still be you?”
A recent version of this experiment yielded some surprising results. These studies have shown that we all consider our preferences with regards to art, music, and literature to be surprisingly essential. Our taste in food and clothing is not far behind. When faced with an imagined scenario in which we wake up and our musical taste is the exact opposite of what it used to be, most of us say that that would not be us anymore, but a completely different person. We tend to consider our taste in music to be a more important part of who we are than our moral, political, or even religious views.
This is a surprising and significant finding on its own. But it is even more surprising and significant if we put it together with another strand of empirical research on the way aesthetic preferences actually change."
Read the full available article on Psychology Today
Reflection: "Do you consider your music taste to be a part of who you are as a person? And has your music taste changed as you changed as a person?
#Music #Taste #Change
@professionalVision2624
I have so many music tastes that I feel like if it were to change nothing would really change too much about me haha! I have playlists for every genre that I listen to each frequently (all except country).
@sunnyWriting4806
Awww hahaa that's a perfect answer! I'm happy you have a broad sense of music! Thank you for your comment!
No, I would not feel like the same person. I am open to at artist, any genre and any language. Yes, I do have my biases and artists or genres I like more than others; but that's normal and expected, I otherwise don't have any preconceived notions about what kind of music I should listen to.
I am more about the lyrical content a lot of the time, but still absolutely have songs where it's more about the instrumentation, as well as songs with very basic lyrics.
I tend to like screamo and opera the least, but I do have a few operatic songs from video game soundtracks. 🤗 My favourite artist 😍 overall is Shakira ☺️ and Lady Antebellum (now Lady A) would come in second.
I appreciate both singing and rap, with a higher concentration of pure singing, but I have some songs that are just full-on rap too. My favourite genres overall are pop, country, folk, indie, soul, R&B...and a little bit of bachata and merengue
I say, when people have prejudices against certain artists or claim they would never listen to a certain type of music, they only lose out in the end - they are limiting themselves, their imagination and their own world and things that would or could pleasantly surprise them.
*I tend to DISike screamo and opera, sorry for the confusion!
@WingstoYou
I love those artists aswell! Thank you for commenting! A really good persective and it does make me think about why I like the music that I like!
Definitely not 😊 I like old school hiphop, instrumentals, beats, something meaningful as well, thats what describes me alot 😍❤️
@jasmineishereforu
I'm happy to hear that! Thank you for your comment! <3
@professionalVision2624 I think that my music has remained relatively the same as I grew up. I love pop music and I kinda just listened to the top hits growing up in the 2000s and 2010s. I just know that without Harry Styles, I wouldn't be who I am 😂