Interesting article in the Seattle PI looking at how your the content and organization of your music collection can give indications of your personality type.
Groundbreaking research has found that a person’s record collection may help predict which of five personality categories he or she belongs to.
Music preference also may reveal individual traits such as political ideology, intelligence and physical attractiveness.
Similarly, how that music is organized — alphabetized on shelves, separated by genre or scattered on the floor — is a reflection of personality, another study shows.
…The studies indicate a music collection and how it’s organized may tell where an owner fits in a group of personality categories called the “Big Five”: extroversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, emotional stability and openness.
Things like this never really seem that accurate to me…the psychoanalytical equivalent of Tarot cards, so to speak. No matter what system or tastes you have, someone is going to be able to read something into it that is going to seem right on first blush. Still, it’s interesting to ponder.
I do have to wonder what they’d think of my collection, though.
Organizationally…well, at the moment, I’m a mess. My CD collection has gone through three distinct phases over the years, and is on its way to a fourth…
Phase One: Pre-DJ years. Alphabetical on shelves by artist, with each artist’s collection (if I had more than one album) in order by release date.
Phase Two: The DJ years. Separated into two collections. Albums that I wasn’t likely to use at whatever club I was at were at home, organized as above. Albums in the “DJ set” were packed into portable cases, sorted first by genre, then alphabetically, then by release date. Initially they were packed in their jewel cases, but over the years I worked on moving them into Case Logic CD sleeves to save space and allow me to take more along at a time.
Phase Three: The current mess. There is no organization at all. When I packed everything up to move to Seattle a few years ago, I just tossed my collection into boxes and cases in whatever order I grabbed them in, the “home set” completely out of order, the “DJ set” still in their travel cases. As I’ve been importing my entire collection into my computer, I’ve just been randomly grabbing cases out of the packing boxes, ripping them into the computer, putting the CD booklet into the CD sleeve, trashing the tray liner and jewel case, and tossing the CD sleeves into a box to be sorted out later. In other words, it’s a complete mess.
Phase Four: It’ll happen eventually…. Once everything is in the ‘puter and I’ve got all the CDs moved out of their jewel cases and into CD sleeves, I’ll find a good case to store the discs themselves in, and I’ll probably go back to the alphabetical sorting scheme, without bothering to sort by genre this time. It’ll be a while before that happens, though.
And as for what the music itself might say about me…I almost shudder to think what conclusions they might draw!
Dad brought me up on a lot of old blues, rock and roll, and folk. Mom added the classical element. I sang for years with the Alaska Children’s Choir, which gave me an appreciation of vocal classical and modern music. Interest and involvement in theater (along with the choir concerts) led me to a lot of Broadway musicals (and Jesus Christ Superstar is, has been, and always will be my all-time favorite modern rock opera…though Chess [the original pre-show album, at least, as I’ve yet to see any on-stage production] frequently gives it a run for its money). A distinct lack of interest in pop music led me into the alternative/gothic/industrial genres. DJ’ing got me into a lot of electronica and dance music (and led me back into pop, though I try to be picky about what pop I like). Various friends and girlfriends let me discover that, while I still have no great appreciation for the sappy ballads, there’s a lot of really good upbeat country music out there that is quite listenable. While hip-hop and rap are hardly genres I’ve explored over the years, I have found quite a bit over the years that I do enjoy (and thanks to a roommate emptying his collection during a move, I can boast a nearly-complete Public Enemy collection). My brother has introduced me to a lot of really good jazz and bluegrass during his years playing both upright and electric bass.
In other words, with the single exception of “smooth jazz” (which — sorry Tim ;) — I cannot listen to without gritting my teeth and wanting to do disturbingly violent things to the people who inflict such an empty, pointless, music-less pablum upon my ears…it really is the only genre I’ve found that I absolutely cannot stand), there’s probably not a single genre that isn’t represented by at least a few albums in my collection.
There’s more than one reason I named this site Eclecticism, after all.
(via Your Local Goddess)
iTunes: “I, Zombie (Europe in the Raw)” by White Zombie from the album Supersexy Swingin’ Sounds (1996, 3:57).
No need to apologize, I’m not offended. There’s enough music for everybody. There is plenty of music out there that I don’t like. (rap) Others like it? Such is life.
I do think that you (and others) misunderstand “Smooth Jazz” there is a local radio station in Seattle (98.9) that calls themselves a smooth jazz station and I can assure you they are not. They play very little smooth jazz. (if any)
I was upset enough with 98.9 (smooth jazz) that after several almost nasty emails to them about their play list ( Doobie brothers, Seals and Croft, Stevie Wonder?) That I am now on the music advisory panel for the station.
Also… I noted that artists like Kenny G. are not smooth jazz. He and others like him play “easy listening” and while I do like all the artists I have listed I don’t feel any of them belong on a smooth Jazz station format.
Either the station agreed with me or just wants to shut me up but either way I don’t care
I’m on the panel and I’m doing my part. (Put up or shut up eh?)
If you’re interested in actually hearing smooth jazz I would recommend Diana Krall.
She plays smooth…Jazz. Not elevator lite, not almost rock, Jazz. There are hundreds if not thousands of great artists out there playing smooth jazz and they deserve to be heard. Artists like Billy Joel and Carly Simon have stations with their format and that is where they belong.
Like you my music collection runs from wild to mild. According to iMisic I have (in this order. R&B-Rock-Jazz-Easy Listening-Pop-Electronica-Classical-Country-Punk and Rap.
I don’t know if music soothes the savage beast, but it soothes me. One of my IM tags says “Lost in music” and there isn’t a better way to say it.
With your love of music, and your wide range of musical tastes. Clearly music speaks to you as well. I only wish others could find the joy that we have found.
Rock on!
Aah… professional Quizilla. (Is it telling that I was thinking organization in terms of directory structure?)
About accuracy, I only looked at the one that talked about music tastes (not the organization one); the authors make it clear that they’re actually pushing for more research in the area and their study was just to get the ball rolling (“we urge social and personality psychologists to broaden their research foci to include aspects of people’s daily lives and to develop an ecologically sensitive depiction of social behavior.”)