Motion By Kelly D. Schwartz And Gregory T.

In 1995, an experiment was set in motion by Kelly D. Schwartz and Gregory T. Fouts. 164 kids between the age of twelve and nineteen, were given a questionnaire. The participants were asked to rate how much they liked 13 different forms of music on a scale of one to five, five being the greatest. The purpose of this questionnaire, was to determine taste in music, while also determining personality traits. The participants tastes in music were grouped into three categories, light, electric, and heavy. Light music includes genres such as pop, teen, and dance. Heavy music includes heavy metal and heavy rock. It was found that preference in music has a strong correlation with a person's attributes. People who listened to light musics, were far

There are their sexuality, and their relationships with their peers. This means, they have trouble balancing dependence on peers and independence from peers, and had trouble replacing childhood beliefs with new sexual impulses. The participants who listened to heavy music, demonstrated vastly different qualities than the listeners of light music. They often demonstrated lower self-esteem than the other categories of music listeners, while also being more aggressive. The participants who said the listened to heavy music, were also those most likely to have problems at home. The final category, eclectic music tastes provided very different results from the other two groups. The participants in this group had no issues involving authority, sexuality, and peer relationships like the other two groups. This shows that having a flexible music taste, can help solve certain developmental issues caused by only listening to a certain type of music. The data provided in this experiment indicate a great deal about how music taste corresponds to

That however brings about a question, is music choice affected by personality, or is personality affected by a person’s music choice? There are tremendous amounts of research on both sides of this debate. One of the first studies on how we choose music was done by a PhD, Albert LeBlanc. He determined music preference is primarily based upon two factors, the musical environment, and the cultural environment. While LeBlanc’s experiment provided a great deal of data on how we choose music, is does not account for the development of music choice. This experiment was later expanded upon by Hargreaves, Miell, and MacDonald. This experiment determined that what we listen to is often based upon our environment. According to the experiment, if a song is heard as background music, it is likely to become part of a person's taste in music later on. Another example provided, is music provided by our parents. If parent start their children off listening to a genre when they are young, they are likely to continue listening to it. Because our personalities are so closely connected to our music taste, it stands to reason that this music can influence some a person's personality traits. While these experiments produce data that shows our personalities are influenced by the music we listen to, there also have been many studies done that lead us to believe that it is the other