Question: Do you have any say in your music taste, or is it due to the environment around you? (You subconciously like those certain kinds of music)

Pete Etchells answered on 4 Jul 2012:

That’s a good question! I think it’s definitely the case that a person’s personality type might have some impact on the type of music that they like. But it’s also clear that people with the same personalities might also like different types of music, or different bands. So I think a lot of it is to do with the environment that you live in, and were brought up in. There’s a concept in psychology called ‘mere exposure’, which is an effect whereby people tend to start liking things that they’ve previously been exposed to. Therefore, if you listened to a rock song when you were a baby, it might make you more likely to like rock music when you’re older. If you think about how complex our sound environment is when we grow up, then it makes sense that people will have very individual preferences when it comes to music!