This article is based on our survey of over 4000 respondents who were asked about their music preferences. The survey has revealed the outlooks different personalities have on music – what we listen to, when we listen to it, and how we do the listening.
Analysts
The music genres that Analyst personality types tend to appreciate more than the other Roles – rock (80%), classical (76%), jazz (54%, tied with Diplomats), punk (46%), and metal (44%) – also tend to be the ones that are most often respected for the sheer technical expertise at work as much as for the more emotional qualities of these songs. Not to say that other genres are lacking in musicianship, but Analysts may nonetheless find these five forms particularly likely to prize efficient, precise virtuosity for its own sake. After all, the only thing an Analyst loves more than a good challenge is seeing that challenge bested through skill alone, whether the challenge is a dazzlingly intricate guitar solo or an entire movement of a tricky concerto.
In addition, Analysts were found to be the heaviest users of headphones (59%) of all the Roles, a characteristic that may be due to Analysts’ need to be “in their heads” as much as possible, shutting out the distractions of the outside world so as to better focus on the problems circulating within. Analyst personalities also have a tendency to feel like loners, and they may prefer listening privately rather than justifying their tastes to an unwelcome audience.
As the Role with the most typical affinity for technology, it may be unsurprising that Analysts were the Role most likely to listen using a PC, laptop, or tablet (42%), devices which are rarely far from most Analysts’ reach. The utilitarian appeal of a computer – useful for so many tasks outside of audio – may be more important to an Analyst than any fidelity lost to inferior speakers.
Diplomats
The pronounced Feeling aspect of Diplomats may partially explain their choice of music: blues (46%), soul (50%), world (49%), alternative (85%), and jazz (54%, tied with Analysts), all genres that are often characterized by great emotional intensity. Ambient (59%) music may also appeal to Diplomats’ poetic nature. Aside from passion, Diplomat personalities may also seek out these genres specifically for their borderlessness, their resistance to being confined by arbitrary categorization.
Quantity alone may not necessarily be the most accurate measure of appreciation, but nevertheless, the finding that Diplomats are the Role most likely to listen to more than two hours of music every day (48%) may still be significant. At the very least, this data may illustrate how readily Diplomats can become lost for extended periods in the alternate realities that music can conjure into being.
The depths of the devotion that Diplomat personality types have to their music may also be exemplified by the fact that they are the most likely Role to embrace MP3 players (14%). Where some Roles may see music as an afterthought, an added feature for their workstation or means of conveyance that is nice, but hardly necessary, Diplomats may feel that having their own tunes close at hand is absolutely vital. For a Diplomat, an MP3 player may take on almost talismanic properties, adored as much for its form – and its symbolism – as its function.
Sentinels
Of the four Roles, Sentinels only came first in their appreciation of two genres: country (43%) and religious music (40%). The strong sense of community that characterizes Sentinel personality types – whose work ethic and desire for order stems from their belief that life is fundamentally about maintaining the social fabric for the good of all – may explain their affinity for these two forms, both of which often contain messages in praise of service, whether to a higher power or to one’s fellow human being. The ambivalence that Sentinels tend to have for popular entertainment – so much of which strikes them as a waste of valuable time – may also explain why music must include at least a bit of didacticism to hold their attention for long.
Sentinels were also the Role least likely to listen to music for more than two hours per day on average (32%), and most likely to listen for less than five minutes a day (5%) – however, when they do listen to music, Sentinels are the most likely to use speakers rather than headphones (53%). Again, Sentinels may feel that music is an extravagance that must be kept in moderation, and they may dislike headphones due to their need to stay connected at all times with the people around them, rather than shutting them out.
Finally, Sentinel personalities were significantly more likely than any other Role to listen to music on a car stereo (13%). For many Sentinels, travel time may be the only space that they truly feel comfortable allowing music into their lives, because at any other time, music may be interpreted as a distraction from more pressing matters.
Explorers
The genres that Explorers favor more than other Roles – namely, electronica (68%), hip-hop (49%), pop (74%), and reggae (35%) – may most frequently match the Explorer mood: energetic and in the moment. Whether it is a fast-driving techno beat or a reggae groove, Explorers may look for music that is more textural than intellectual, evoking an immediate, visceral response.
Immediacy may also be the reason behind Explorer personalities getting highest scores for the TV (2%) and the smartphone (47%) as preferred devices, both of which are tailor-made for snap decisions. An Explorer might have little patience for the lengths some music lovers go to in order to curate a personal library – researching, collecting, and categorizing all sounding like time better spent listening – but an Explorer might be perfectly satisfied with the serendipity of the sounds summoned forth by the flick of a remote or the tap of an app.
Conclusions
At times, the modern ubiquity of music can deafen us to the beauty of sound, the often subtle interplay between voice and instrument communicating a feeling that no other medium can quite match. Moreover, with limitless availability, we also have limitless variety, a much-celebrated blessing that carries with it the curse of the “tyranny of choice,” the idea that, when faced with too many options, we become overwhelmed with the number of variables at play, and end up choosing none of the above. Awash in an ocean of music, our identities, so closely bound to our sonic preferences, may sometimes feel in danger of being drowned out by the noise.
On the other hand, the songs that cut through this static may be cherished all the more, and define us ever the more clearly, than if we had less of a surfeit at our disposal. Rather than molding ourselves to fit a small selection of niches, we increasingly have the power to carve them out anew.
Still, just as two personality types may enjoy the same genre – or an artist, or even a single song – for different reasons, it is important to remember that music must not necessarily foster division and tribalism, though it can certainly be turned to those ends. Music is a mode of communication, a means of bridging gaps in our understanding when mere words fail.
SOURCE: NERIS Analytics Limited 2018
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