Why do people define their identities by what kind of music they listen to?

Question

It seems kind of silly to me to be honest---music isn't everything---is it?

Answer 1

Music plays a big part in our lives.Without music I wouldn't be able to get through the day.Music can express your personality and and bring out all the beautiful feelings you have inside your inner self.Music can say many things that you are unable to express yourself,but the music will say it all for you.Romantic love songs and beautiful music are all wonderful sounds saying all the things that you cannot say to someone in person,but the music speaks for you.Without my music I wouldn't survive a day.Music is my love and my love is music.

Answer 2

Music helps frame peoples identities and what they think about the world around them. Lyrics might contain words and issues which are relevant to our emotional predicaments and states and even our views of society and politics. Furthermore certain sounds evoke emotions which help build identities. Agressive music, like heavy metal, migh be considered masculine.

They also give us a spanshot of society and what are the issues and ideas which are floating* around and being discussed.  I think they are a bit of popular culture in this way. People orientate themselves in cetain ways of thinking and acting and this is reflecting in music and music enhances the discusion. Theres a dynamic.

I think for example a lot of pop music has changed with some shifts in ideologies about how women are empowered.

We have moved from "girl power!" and the spice girls to easy and sleazy with fergie.

This is reflected in celebs like paris hilton and in kids toys like bratz. Putting aside how bad this might be!  In the 60s music reflect popular movements against the vietnam war, government authority and excesses of capitalism.

Music certainly isnt everything but its our mirror and societies mirror.

* I shouldnt say flaoting- of course different ideas come from different people with different experiences and motivations.

Answer 3

cause kids now a days are weirdos...... I have met hippy wannabe kids cause hippys were only around in the 60s and sometimes they surprize my by likin hip hop and stuff like dat. otherwise i think its lame heres the stereotypes:

rap=thug (if not from hood fake thug or wigger)

gothic= all black, suicide cry over money

Punk Rock= girls who are hot but make themselves look ugly by dyin their hair g*y colors

etc... so on and so forth

People are lame and noone is real even the most realest gangstaz and truest hippy rastafarians.... the older generation never had this problem my parents and their friends arent all weird... although I remember alot of dudes in the 1980s havin that WWF ultimate warrior look hahahaha

Answer 4

That is the type of creatures that we are.

We are not ever completely in-touch or in control of our concious and sub-conscious feelings, so we can never fully express them.  What music offers us, is an opportunity to force those feelings that we hear reflected in the artist to the surface and in a sense.....bleed them out.

We are always looking for avenues to express our inner-most feelings, even if it is through another source.  We need someone to look at, or something like a song, tv show, or movie to be abled to say.....

"There!  That is how I feel!  Exactly!"

Without These Bands, I Would Have Had Worse Teen Years...

-Toad The Wet Sprocket

-Dave Matthews Band

-Nirvana

-Foo Fighters

Answer 5

Music is reflective of the inner man and it does tell a lot about  the times people are living in, what they personally feel as a person, what they wear and who they are.

Answer 6

a lot of the time, a person's personality will go along with the music they listen to. people express themselves with their music, because music is just such a large part of humanity.

Answer 7

as a psychology experiment in school we had this project, where we twenty minutes to listen to a random cd collection and then write a page describing the owner without ever meeting them. the owners  (students from another class) then took a survey on the accuracy of the results. our class had an 85 percent accuracy rate. according to our proffesor this experiment over the course of five years had resulted in an overall accuracy rating of 81.6 percent. i alsways found that impressive.

the type of music that you listen to for pleasure, when put into perspective as a whole turns out to be very revealing about what type of person you are on a very real level.

some people dont listen to lyrics, some people dont seek out anything other than whats popular, some people listen to lyrics only... each tidbit tells a little about them.

example- one person, over 400 songs all by the same artist, all dealing with social and pollitical issues in virtually every line. but the rest of their music was love songs... what would you think?

another person had a collection that was like someone threw a jukebox in a blender then only picked out the songs with strong beats, no matter what the topics or lyrics were. there werent anything else.

still another person has music that only consisted of love ballads and country songs...

after a while you stop seeing cds and start seeing personality types.

try it on a date some time... if they have 20 songs about cheating and 20 more about partying, and those are their favorites.....

i once had a friend that had the exact same cd collection as me... every last one. and though we arent exactly alike, our writing style and book selections are.

so just some thoughts

Answer 8

When I first meet someone I ask them what kind of music do they listen too and who is their favorite band or artist.  

That alone tells me a lot about a person and their personality.