Does Taste In Music Affect Political Ideology

The question I chose to ask for my research paper is: Does taste in music affect political ideology? I chose this question after both experiencing a change in political thinking after experiencing a huge increase in the different genres of music I enjoy listening to and I also noticed that a majority of like-minded individuals also seemed to have a more diverse taste in music. A study conducted by William Fox and James Williams showed that liberal students tend to prefer a more diverse type of music and that is in both the music itself as well as the way in which it is consumed. Liberal students were shown to attend more concerts, buy more records, albums and tapes and listen to more diverse genres of music such as folk, and blues. However,

As stated in the previous paragraph, taste in music would generally be developed before political ideology and before an interest in politics would even occur. Secondly, people are likely to be interested in music more than politics. The second causal hurdle produces a more challenging task, can I prove that taste in music does, in fact, influence political ideology and not vice-versa? I believe that I can, to some extent. As I stated before, I am a firm believer that taste in music is developed before political ideology. However, it could be argued that a less prominent form of political ideology begins to develop in children from a young age that then begins to influence their tastes in music. These inklings of political ideology could be instilled in them by their parents and other prominent figures in their lives. But, from personal experience and from observing others, most people tend to develop their own tastes in music and then begin to stray away from the ideologies instilled on them by their parents. For example, some children go through a phase as early-teens where they listen to a genre of music that has a darker, outsider and kind of anarchist underlying narrative. This causes them to begin changing how their views of the world as well as how they dress and act. Therefore, if music can have this robust of an impact on an individual changing everything from how they dress to their actions and world views, it can be assumed that it can play a leading role in influencing political