Music Taste and Preference

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Why do you prefer rock to pop? House to trance? Those cheesy throwbacks to the top 50 rap hits on Spotify? There are many music genres and whatever your preference there are biological reasons behind our individual tastes.

We begin hearing sound in the early stages of our development, before birth. As a fetus in the womb, we could hear our mother’s heartbeat through amniotic fluid. Music played outside of a mother’s body can also be heard by the fetus. It has been suggested that after birth, a baby prefers music that it heard whilst it was in the womb, which may then be one of the reasons we develop individual tastes in music. Indeed, studies have found that music assists the growth of important brain structures in a fetus and that babies remember the music from the womb up to four months following birth.

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This idea that fetuses remember the music from the womb has been explored through various studies. In one investigation conducted by Alexandra Lamont of Keele University, fetuses were exposed to either classical (Mozart, Vivaldi), Top 40 (Five, Backstreet Boys), reggae (UB40, Ken Boothe) or world beat (Spirits of Nature) songs in the womb regularly over time in the final three months of gestation. Once born, these infants were not played these tracks for a year. After a year, the tracks they heard in the womb as well as another track with matched style and tempo were played to the babies. Lamont then conducted ‘head-turning’ studies (methodology developed by Fantz in the 1960s) using two speakers playing randomized sounds (either the track from the womb or the similar track) to the babies. Lamont found that the babies tended to look longer at speakers playing the music they had heard in the womb. This supports the idea that babies remember music from the womb.

Although there is evidence to suggest we remember music from the womb, it does not necessarily mean that our music taste will be governed by these early-life exposures and preferences for the rest of our lives. The idea of Infantile Amnesia suggests that humans cannot remember events that occurred before the age of three, meaning that we may not remember music played in the womb after early childhood. This is because the brain networks responsible for memory are not fully formed and are still developing. More supporting evidence for Infantile Amnesia is the fact that memories only start to form explicitly around the 2-year mark. Although Childhood Amnesia may be a contradicting argument suggesting that the music we were played in the womb may not influence our after-childhood music preferences, it is important to note that we do not always have to consciously remember something to have a response to it later. Music may be something that can cause a memory-triggering response at a subconscious level. This is why people sometimes hear music and are taken back to a feeling or emotion they once had but cannot always pinpoint when this original music was played or when this emotional response was previously triggered.

It is evident that our musical tastes change throughout our lives. One study showed that our tastes shift in line with different developmental phases in our lives. They found that teenagers are more likely to listen to ‘intense’ music whereas young adults listen to more ‘mellow’ music as the search for closer relationships increases. In later life it was found that individuals listen to ‘sophisticated’ and ‘unpretentious’ music which may reflect their project status and family. During the teen years, individuals have an excess of synapses and neurons which causes them to experience everything more intensely, so they are hardwired to enjoy music that reflects this intensity, as it is relatable.

It is known that people often choose to listen to music that reflects their mood or emotional state. Mood and emotional state are both influenced by the state of your brain. Another way in which music preference differs is to do with consonance versus dissonance. Consonant music is pleasing to the ear and provides harmony whereas dissonant music like. ‘Peripetie’ by Arnold Schoenberg is often hard to listen to and disharmonious. Infants and young people typically prefer consonant music, but appreciation of dissonant music can increase with age. Although it is known that consonant intervals and dissonant intervals are processed differently in the auditory cortex, it is so far unknown why some people prefer consonant intervals over dissonant intervals.

There may be many reasons behind our music preferences. This article has shown the impact that playing music while pregnant may have on a baby’s music preference in early childhood, but the Childhood Amnesia theory is evidence that although this may explain music preference in early-life, it may not extend to later-life. It has also shown that different stages of life influence our music tastes due to the biology going on in our brains at the time. Finally, we have seen that consonance vs dissonance may affect our music taste and that the preference between these types of sounds may depend on age.

Where to find out more:

• Sound in the early stages of our development: https://www.pnas.org/content/112/10/3152
• Music played outside of a mother’s body can also be heard by the fetus: https://www.whattoexpect.com/pregnancy/fetal-development/fetal-hearing/#:~:text=It’s%20not%20all%20in%20vain,she’ll%20enter%20at%20birth
• Music assists the growth of important brain structures in a fetus: https://www.tinylove.com/pregnancy/music-in-the-womb/#.YHGYZBRKiS5
• Infantile Amnesia: https://www.jneurosci.org/content/37/24/5783
• Memories only start to form explicitly around the 2-year mark: https://www.fatherly.com/health-science/when-do-memories-start-what-do-kids-remember/
• Our tastes shift in line with different developmental phases in our lives: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/10/131015123654.htm
• The teen years: http://www.takepart.com/article/2015/07/12/loud-music/
• People often choose to listen to music that reflects their mood or emotional state: https://cognitiontoday.com/the-importance-of-music-when-and-why-we-listen-to-music/#:~:text=Stress%20Regulation%3A%20We%20use%20music,distract%20ourselves%20in%20stressful%20situations.&text=Anger%20Regulation%3A%20Music%20can%20calm,reduce%20our%20feelings%20of%20loneliness.
• Peripetie: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QNCIz-_QFrs

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