Musical Identities, Music Preferences, and Individual Differences

Abstract

Musical identities are central to the formation of identity in emerging adulthood. We examined how standard psychological approaches to identity apply to musical identities, and how individual differences in personality and music preferences are involved. Results from a large-scale study of undergraduates from two university campuses revealed that: (1) preferences for different musical genres vary according to culture, environment, and ethnic background; (2) music preferences are associated with personality characteristics, particularly openness-to-experience; (3) performing musicians and non-performers prefer different genres of music; (4) participants’ musical identity statuses have only small associations with identity formation in other domains; and (5) music preferences are associated with musical identities, as well as with individual differences in personality, self-concept clarity, and music training.

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