How is music preference related to personality traits or particular qualities? I'm a big music enthusiast myself, and one thing I noticed about myself, and not exactly about other people, is that I don't have any music genre I prefer listening to. For example, I don't mind it being rock, rap, techno or any music genre for that matter. As long as the beat is catchy, the quality of execution is there, and I can enjoy listening to it, I'll do so.

Hence, I've been wondering if there is any correlation between people liking certain kinds of genres and having certain qualities, skills or personality traits? For example, are people who like certain genres more creative or outgoing?
As your luck would have it, there is a study by Schwartz et al. (2003) that examines just that.

They found that there was a specific personality type associated with music preference in adolescents. The paper is freely available on familywise.ca.


Schwartz, K. D., &amp; Fouts, G. T. (2003). Music preferences, personality style, and developmental issues of adolescents. Journal of youth and adolescence, 32(3), 205-213. (PDF)