Do We Judge Others By Their Music Taste?

Studies have shown that people tend to stereotype others based on their music taste.

Dr Julian Oldmeadow, co-author of the You Are What You Listen To: Young People's Stereotypes about Music Fans study, says: "Stereotypes in music absolutely exist, but these are socially constructed stereotypes, rather than meanings inherent in the music itself. The sorts of opinions, values and attitudes implied in different genres are sometimes quite direct, such as through the lyrics, but they are also constructed through associations we learn about from others."

Dr Oldmeadow's study examined whether there are widely shared stereotypes about people who enjoy different types of music, and it was found that different musical genres were associated with particular personality traits, personal values, as well as ethnic and social groups.

For example, classical and jazz music fans were rated high on 'Agreeableness' and 'Emotional Stability', whereas fans of both rock and electronica were rated high on 'Extraversion and Openness'. Classical fans were seen as higher on 'Political Conservatism', 'Intelligence', 'Religiosity', and 'Artistic Ability'; and lower on 'Athletic Ability'.

The research also showed that the working class is believed to listen more to rap and pop while the upper class would listen more to classical music and jazz:

Unlike the individuals described in the quiz, Hélder Raposo is a real person, and he is a target of stereotyping on a day-to-day basis.

Hélder has been a target of these stereotypes for a long time. When people find out he is the Lead Singer of an industrial rock band, they just automatically associate him with violence and aggressiveness.

"Due to a lot of people's lack of knowledge of 'heavy rock', this music genre is associated with brute violence, musical poverty, and chaotic aggressiveness with hardly any harmony," Hélder says.

According to Hélder, as it happens with most forms of stereotyping, these are inevitable consequences of misjudgements which are based on categorizing as 'weird' things that go against what is referred to as 'normal'.

"These misjudgements, mainly if they are based on prejudice, are never fair or correct, as they are a ‘caricatural’ perception of others," Hélder affirms.

He says that maybe in more niche manifestations being stereotypical is almost automatic, but nowadays 'heavy music' has such ample dissemination that it is very hard to make associations between music genres and groups.

Hélder adds: "If we do that, we are falling into an artificial and stereotypical cycle."

Even if Hélder is associated with the stereotypes of 'heavy rock', and this is his favourite music style, he listens to various music genres in his free time. Not only out of curiosity in knowing and exploring new and different things, but also, and mainly because music has many possibilities.

"The range of states of mind, sensations, and intellectual stimulation music gives us is so big that it is always a good principle to be open-minded. Not allowing ourselves to explore all these different sounds is almost a crime," Hélder says.

To Hélder, sometimes it is good to do without the heaviness and intensity of rock in favour of other music genres, from EDM to classical music, pop, and even some pimba (a type of Portuguese popular / folk music, with an up-tempo style and vulgar lyrics).

Hélder says: "This is why I believe people should not be judged by their preferred music genre. Humans are a mix of endless characteristics and all of us probably listen to more than one music genre, so we should not be deemed for only one of our features."

Hélder is naturally a calm and discreet person, so these are generally the characteristics that people associate him with when they first meet him.

"What usually happens is that when someone - either from my family, less-close friends and work colleagues - finds out I am in a heavy rock band, they are incredulous, as they do not associate that with my discreet personality," Hélder says.

From the moment people find out he is in a heavy rock band, people's perception of Hélder changes, even though his personality is the same.

Hélder concludes: "They get perplexed and sometimes are curious to understand this kind of ‘double personality’. It is like I am a character from the famous Gothic novella Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde."

Hélder tries to keep his professional and personal life separated to not be misjudged at work as that has already brought him problems professionally.

"One time, I was turned down for a lecturing job because the hiring manager found a performance of Uivo Bastardo online and he thought I would be aggressive to the students. All because of my tone singing. I don't want that to happen again..."

When Marco is performing in an opera, he is undeniably associated with the characteristics of classical music.

"I think that is in part because of how the public sees or portrays artists in relation to classical music: you would have the fat lady who sings opera, or the piano nerd, or the drunken brass player." Marco says.

However, on a day-to-day basis, no one would say Marco sings opera professionally. He has long hair, always wears black, has a piercing on his ear, and uses a lot of slang.

According to Marco, when he tells people what he does for a living, nobody believes him at first.

"I don't cultivate that stereotype. I don't have a really big presence on social media, I love football, and the main thing is that the music genre I listen to the most in my free time is heavy metal," Marco says.

Having said that, Marco admits he has colleagues that still fit into that old stereotypical mould. But, most of the time nowadays, most classical singers do not look like classical singers. And that is why Marco believes there shouldn't be determined stereotypes associated with classical musicians anymore, this belongs to the past.

Even though people get quite surprised when he tells them he is an opera singer, Marco doesn't mind telling his work colleagues what he listens to in his free time.

"Being a classical musician means that you've studied music for at least 20 years, so we normally don't have any problems saying the types of music we listen to, people will not associate us with those because they already connect us with classical music stereotypes," Marco says.

Marco does not like stereotypes themselves, but he admits that sometimes he takes advantage of these when facing other music genres' musicians.

"Because of the stereotypes associated with classical music, when I say I'm a professional classical musician, other musicians basically bow down. I know I'm being a smartass by saying this, but if we're talking about stereotypes, well, that's it," Marco concludes.

Marco says that people are misjudged by their music taste. Not only that, but by many things in their life: their food taste, their sports tastes... People are misjudged all the time for all the reasons.

"People should not be misjudged by the way they dress or their musical taste or what they eat or look like. But then again, that's how society works," Marco says.

Marco has been an opera singer for 20 years now, having been stereotyped for the same amount of years, so he doesn't find important what people might think about him anymore or if they misjudge him by his musical tastes.

"I think you reach a certain age and a certain professional experience in this career and you just get along well either with critic or misjudgement. But obviously, this should not happen to anyone," Marco concludes.