Study: Music Taste Changes Over Time

British researchers have identified five categories of musical tastes during a person's life, and say people's musical tastes change to meet their social and psychological needs. Researchers say after gathering data from more than 25-thousand people over a ten year period, they've divided musical genres into five broad categories: mellow, unpretentious, sophisticated, intense, and contemporary.

According to The Daily Mail, the study found that, unsurprisingly, the first great musical age is adolescence, which is defined by a short, sharp burst of ‘intense’ and the start of a steady climb of ‘contemporary’.

‘Intense’ music, such as punk and metal peaks in adolescence and declines in early adulthood, while ‘contemporary’ music such as pop and rap begins a rise that plateaus until early middle age.

 

Dr Jason Rentfrow, senior researcher on the study, said: 'Teenage years are often dominated by the need to establish identity, and music is a cheap, effective way to do this.'

As ‘intense’ gives way to the rising tide of ‘contemporary’ and introduction of ‘mellow’, such as electronic and R&B, in early adulthood, the next musical age emerges.

These two 'preference dimensions' are considered 'romantic, emotionally positive and danceable,' the researchers wrote.

   

Dr Rentfrow said: 'Once people overcome the need for autonomy, the next life challenge concerns finding love and being loved – people who appreciate this "you" that has emerged.'

'What we took away from the results is that these forms of music reinforce the desire for intimacy and complement settings where people come together with the goal of establishing close relationships – parties, bars, clubs and so on.

'Whereas the first musical age is about asserting independence, the next appears to be more about gaining acceptance from others.'

As people settle down and middle age begins to creep in, the last musical age, as identified by the researchers, is dominated by ‘sophisticated’ music, such as jazz and classical and ‘unpretentious’ tunes, such as country, folk and blues.

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