A study found that we make assumptions about someone’s personality, values, social class and ethnicity based on their musical preferences.
I think it’s true because I have been experiencing this from long time, one of the few things I ask when I meet someone for the first time is the kind of music they listen to. I feel it tells you a lot about their personality, and if you are a music lover – trust me it does! Finding what music you truly enjoy is like finding your own style. Over the past few years I have realized that these two things go hand in hand.
My taste in music has changed a lot over the years and so has my personality and my choice of clothes. It’s all related! As a kid, I wasn’t very much into music; I remember my love for music grew when I heard ‘quit playing games with my heart’ by Backstreet Boys and ‘Bailamos’ by Enrique Iglesias (also he was my first crush :P) for the first time. Pop- music was all that I knew and I use to love it. I guess it has to do a lot with your mental psyche as well. Most of the pop music I knew back then was mostly about love songs, heart breaks and so on. I wasn’t through all that and I didn’t have any style till junior school I’d say, because I use to wear whatever my parents use to buy for me ( and that’s not what I call style!) and soon my love for pop music was over!
When I entered college, I became friends with people who enjoyed rap music. And so I started listening to it as well and because rap is sometimes so fast, I could hardly understand it and I started reading the lyrics too. But soon I realized, that music was not for me – I felt it had too much swag, too much attitude, ego in the lyrics, it was mostly about getting girls, money, booty and so on. It didn’t feel authentic. I remember in my 1st year of college, I heard ‘complicated’ by Avril Lavigne and I was totally in love with the song. That’s when I started listening to the punk-rock music and then I realized, this is something I really enjoy. It completely changed my style- I started wearing black, skinny jeans, black nail paint, converse, rock band t-shirts and so on. Usually people who listen to punk- rock are anticipated as rebels, broken and sometimes cold-hearted, it was nothing like that for me. I just loved rock music and I use to feel great about the fact that even a girl can be rocker – I thought it was really cool and I still do. My love for punk-rock/ rock kept on growing when I started listening to – Greenday, Blink 182, ACDC, Aersosmith, audioslave, Foo fighters, Guns n Roses, Metallica, Three doors down, U2, Van Halen, The Who, Red hot Chilli Peppers and so on and it totally influenced my thought pattern. I have never been a fan of love songs and after rock music, I thought romantic music is for emotional people, deep thinkers and hopeless romantics and I was certainly not one of those. I think I was never one of those girlish girls and may be that’s why I felt more connected to rock music and so did my sense of style. For the longest time in my life, I just didn’t care about stuff, I had – I don’t give a fuck attitude. In someways it was good and in some it wasn’t.
Till today, I listen to rock music, but I am not the same person anymore. I am working and I’ve become more mature and so has my sense of style and my taste in music. Now I like listening to classic rock – Kenny Rodgers, Louis Armstrong, Patti Smith, Frank Sinatra, The Beatles, Santana, The Smiths, Bruce Springsteen, Led Zeppelin, Beruit are some of my favorites. Old classic music has changed my thought pattern as well as style. I’ve started caring more, became emotional (sometimes a lot), became sensible, became considerate and things like that. Now my style includes – oxford shoes, peter pan collar, dresses ( i was never a dress person for the longest time in my life, phew!), lace, vintage pieces and so on. I am still not one of those girlish girl- I can never be like that, it’s not me and I like it. I think I am more edgy with my style.
Music has played a very important role in my life as well as in my style and my thought process. And I find it really crazy that I can actually figure out a lot about people just by knowing about what kind of music they listen to and it’s mostly right. It’s all related!
