On the relevance of music genre-based analysis in research on musical tastes

Abstract

The investigation of the link between personality and musical tastes has led certain psychology researchers to examine the latent dimensions of musical tastes. In this area of research, investigators have largely relied on genre-based analysis, the relevance of which remains unclear. In this study, we examined the impact of changes in the selection of musical items on the identification of musical taste dimensions. Indeed, investigators have employed heterogeneous sets of music genres in prior research. Such a heterogeneity may partly explain why no clearly reproducible structure of musical tastes has emerged in the literature. Based on principal component analysis, our results indicate that the apparent structure of musical tastes is highly affected by even subtle variations in the items selected. Our findings also suggest that the identified structure of musical tastes strongly depends on the social background and cultural capital of respondents. Finally, our results highlight the limitations of the models that interpret the dimensions of musical tastes in terms of intrinsic musical properties.