Many people regularly talk about how music affects the personality and lifestyle of its listeners, ranging from friendly discussions between parents and their kids to congress lobbying to ban certain kinds of music or to at least label and restrict them. For the most part, people have dismissed such claims as paranoia at best, and ludicrous at worst, stating that while genres of music may have immediate effects while being listened to, it does not dictate people’s personality and thinking. But as it turns out, recent studies have shown that musical preference may show the listener’s personality, and in turn, affect the personality of a person as well.

A reflection of the mind

One such study from the University of Cambridge showed a method of determining how people think and act based on the music they like to listen to. The study targeted over 4,000 listeners and used a Facebook personality test app to give the participants a set of questions to determine specific personality traits. After a set period of time, the participants yet again received another questionnaire, this time with 15-second song snippets from 50 songs that represented up to 26 different genres of music, to see how they’d react and what kind of music they’d prefer. The results of both tests were then matched to see if there are patterns and correlations to personalities and music preferences.

As it turned out, there were correlations. Mellow music listeners, like R&B and slow jazz, exhibit more empathy, while rock, hip-hop, and house music listeners are more systematic and structural in thought. In addition, people on the more empathic side preferred music with less energy and focus more on negative and heavy emotions like depression, while the systematic side revealed positive energy and emotions, like happiness and strength.

Basically, people who prefer slower, more smooth music, are more emotional, while people who prefer faster, more energetic music are more logical and structural, according to the study. But while music may be a reflection of one’s personality and thinking, can it really affect one’s personality and thinking as well?

Music’s influence

Remember how lullabies can make babies (and even adults) fall asleep, and how a school’s theme song in a sporting event can just lift your heart up and get you ready for battle? Those are examples of music affecting one’s emotions. This, we already know. But can music truly, in the long run, affect someone’s personality and behavior?

The answer is YES.

Brainwave entertainment like Brainwave Power Music’s binaural beats and isochronic tones tracks do this regularly. But aside from this, common genres of music are also known to affect the personality regularly, due to their beat, the tones they use, and the overall composition of the pieces of music. And just like the study we talked about above, many studies in the past have also shown this, and have even come up with a list of what certain genres of music do for the person’s mind and personality. Here are a few examples, in addition to the ones listed earlier.

1.)    Ambient noise promotes creativity – while this is not specifically a genre of music, many musical pieces, including binaural beats tracks, have ambient noises. It was discovered that moderate volume ambient noise greatly promotes creative thinking and abstract processing. Too loud, however, and the brain is impaired and overwhelmed with the auditory information. Listening to this regularly will greatly improve creativity even without musical assistance.

2.)    Worship music alleviates emotional anxieties – sadness, depression, and a constantly negative personality can be alleviated by worship-music. Studies have shown that people who attend fellowships and engage in the listening and singing of worship music have improved levels of happiness and those with anxiety problems have felt improvements in their own personal feelings, after consistently attending and listening to the songs.

3.)    Rock music improves personal motivation – the high energy pace of rock music is not only preferred by systematic people, as indicated above, it also helps in one’s own personal motivation. Constantly listening to rock music greatly strengthens the listener’s emotional and psychological resolve and can help motivate them on a regular basis. Alternatively, people who prefer other equally energetic genres like hip-hop and dance music can also feel the same motivation, as long as it keeps up with a certain tempo and intensity.

The dark side of this is that lyrics can greatly influence the listener as well. Songs with negative lyrics or messages, when constantly listened to, becomes ingrained in a person’s psyche and can be subconsciously recalled. So it is also important to make sure lyrics are taken into consideration when listening to songs.

One good way to ensure you get the necessary results is to listen to music tracks that are specifically designed to aid your mind and brain, like our binaural beats and isochronic tones tracks. For example, this binaural beats playlist for happiness and love, that we have prepared especially for our fans.

The Heart’s Ocean is a collection of Brainwave Power Music’s original music therapy tracks that all relate to the power of the heart, in its deepest emotional or physical or spiritual aspects. The intention in creating these tracks range from desires to self-healing, to self-loving and acceptance, behavioral change, and the vast meanings of what Love truly is.

We recommend our partner SleepPhones, as the highest quality and most comfortable headphones to use while sleeping and listening to our music. Wired and Wireless options are available:

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