Dance music fans are “creative” and “outgoing”, but “not gentle”, says new study

Dance music fans are “creative” and “outgoing”, but “not gentle”, says new study

5 September, 2008 | 8.22AM

• Section: Music News Topics: Beatport Blog
• Written by: Lee Smith

Since the mods and rockers clashed on the beaches of Brighton in the 1960s, music fans have been quick to align themselves with their own tribe, notably in the myriad world of dance music sub-genres.

Now, a new study of over 36,000 people undertaken by the UK’s Herriot-Watt University has found that fans of certain types of music often exhibit similar characteristics.

According to the research, dance fans - like the famous ‘Techno Viking’, pictured above - tend to be outgoing, creative, and “not gentle”.

The study, led by Professor Adrian North, is said to be the largest of its kind.

Participants from countries across the globe were asked to rate 104 different style of music, and were also asked questions about their personality.

“We have always suspected a link between music taste and personality,” said Professor North on the BBC News website.

“This is the first time that we’ve been able to look at it in real detail.

“No-one has ever done this on this scale before.”

Some of the results differ from conventional stereotypes - who would have thought, for instance, that fans of both classical and heavy metal music would share characteristics such as being “creative, at ease, but not outgoing”?

Meanwhile, certain results verge on the comedic, like the assertion that reggae fans are “not hardworking”, or that blues listeners, somewhat ironically, tend to have “high self-esteem”.

And as for dance music fans being “not gentle” - it seems like all that shoving at the bar over the years may have rubbed off on us, after all.

You can read more about the study at the BBC News website, and in the meantime, we’ve chosen a Tenaglia classic for the player: Celeda’s ‘Be Yourself’. 

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