The Psychology behind your favorite songs
In psychology, there are two prevailing theories regarding how we develop our musical preference. The first is that our musical preferences develop randomly in that life experiences shape our preferences. The second theory is that our preferences in music reflect crucial aspects of our personality. And both arguments have merits.
Based on what we know about conditioning we can develop positive or negative associations with stimuli from events surrounding them. This goes into behavioral psychology, but to explain it, let’s look at an example. Let’s say that you were in school and every time your teacher would give a pop quiz, which you did not like and would cause you to feel anxious; he would wear a red tie. So you learned to associate the red tie with a stress-inducing pop quiz, and by extension, you learned to associate the tie with anxiety. Now, whenever you see a red tie, you feel anxious (with or without the presence of a pop quiz). This type of associations can be good or bad and can occur with anything, including music.
The other theory is a bit more difficult to explain, but it centers around the notion that we use music to fulfill specific psychological functions (such as manipulate our emotional state or stimulate us mentally). The link between our emotional states (mood) and personality cannot be overlooked. You’ve seen people with a cheerful disposition, and they always seem happy (in a good mood) chances are the type of music they enjoyed would reflect their particular personality traits.
While more research regarding the different emotions songs can cause is needed, there is no doubt that music is a very powerful influence in many of our lives.
“It seems like people get afraid of a certain music if they can’t pigeonhole it to their satisfaction… Good music is good music, and that should be enough for anybody.”
-Bradley Nowell