http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080905/lf_nm_life/britain_music_dc
Yahoo! News
5 September 2008
This article serves to show us that our stereotypes about music listeners. We have many assumptions of people who listen to certain genre of music.
Some of the stereotypes are soul music listeners are pessimistic people. People who listen to classical music are boring people. People who love jazz are people who are very laid back in life. Heavy metal music lovers are violent. People who enjoy pop music are wild.
These misconceptions affect the way we communicate. Music is very much integral with out lives. Just take a look at the number of people with their earphones in public. Because it is so omnipresent, we form different groups. People tend to feel closer with those who have certain qualities are common with them and music preference is one of those.
Very often, one would ask about the music preference of a person to see if they have anything in common. Once we found someone with similar favorite genre of music, we tend to be more intimate with him or her. Since we have similar taste with them, we also assume that their thinking will be very much in sync with ours. Hence, we hold the belief that they will be less likely to misinterpret our messages. For the same reason, we will also treat people who have different preference to music less favorably.
This article also debunks urban myths about music lovers. We can see that our stereotypes of certain music lovers are totally contrary to reality. Thus, we should do our best not to judge a person hastily and succumb to fallacies as described by Francis Bacon. It also serves to teach us that our beliefs are not necessarily the truth and we should constantly evaluate it so that we can communicate with everyone as fairly as we can.
9 comments:
I do think that assumptions on how a person is just based on the genre of music they listen to can be very misleading.
For one, my friends and i really love a fair bit of hard rock music and metal. But that does not mean we're all angry and violent the way people always stereotype it to be.
Good post!
While it is true that most people tend to sterotype people based on what music they listen as we assume that genre of the music matches the person's personality, hence the liking for that music.
Thus, we need to communicate in order to get a clear picture and understand the person better, not just based on the music he/she likes as it is superficial.
True enough, there are just too many stereotypes due to the likings for different genres of music, thanks to those "baddies" who merely got "famous" and the reporters who go all out to report almost everything about them.
Music genres appeal to people based on their emotions and mental state. If they're normally calm and peaceful, they would probably love slow songs that belongs to the classical or jazz genre. For those who are impatient or love thrills, they would tend to enjoy punk rock, R&B,etc.
Music DOES define personality, but only to a small extent. To truly know a person, real communications need to take place. As people talk, more and more things about the person will be revealed. Thus, these stereotypes are generally false alarms and should not be taken into account when meeting new friends.
Hey..
This is an interesting article about music choices. I guess sometimes people tend to be lazy when they meet new people so they may try to classify people based on their music preferenced.
For myself,I like jazz and hip hop music, which are quite different. To some extent, I'm quite laid back but I don't really fufil the hip hop category, because you don't really hear me rapping away right?
Anyway, music should be a "link" between people from all parts of the world and society, so people should not try to stereotype the others. Why not try unite them instead? In other words, music is just like sports, that shouldn't be limited by boundaries.
Cheers
Wendy
your post compliments my post
well i feel that generally the genre of music u listen to do not really define who you are. it defines how u are feeling at that point of time in your life. like what ive said in my blog that music helps to express your feelings and emotions. LIke how toddlers enjoy nursery rhymn, teens and adults have their own "kind" of music too.
I think that judging people based on the music genres that they listen to can be very subjective as different people have different ideas and comments about the many different genres of music in the first place, and since judging itself is subjected to biases.
I feel that music to a small extent, is a cue for us to classify people as i personally feel that a person's listen to different genres or music under different mood, thus it varies time to time.
However, I also feel that music carries messages that singers or composers wants to convey to the audience. Thus there is an interaction between both (:
Different kinds of music convey different meanings. It helps you to understand how someone is feeling or thinking. But it doesn't define someone. I think it's an absolutely wrong perception that people should define or sterotype someone just based on the type of music they listen. There are some people who listen to an extensive range of music, from classical to heavy metal. How then would this define this group of people? Confused personality? I doubt so.
I don't know if you remember, but in Dr.Ho's music class I said that I listened to all genres of music. In that case, like Quinn said, I must be a truly confused person with a multiple personality disorder. xD... I think such generalisations should not be made about music. It's true that most people will veer towards what they identify with, but in the case that they're more open minded and able to accept different genres just as easily, then why not? It only leads to more avenues for enjoyment.
different music conveys different feelings and emotions...true, we often stereotype people accroding to the type of music they listen to. This should not be the case as music comes in a wide variety and it is simply not what kind of music we listen to that determines one's personality
Therfore, one should change this kind of perception
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