What is This Music? Musical Taste, Psychology, Sociology, Media, and Manipulation
Why do people like the music they like-and hate what they hate? Musical taste is connected to identity, personality, and community, as well as to marketing, semiotics, and technology. This thesis explores the many facets of musical taste-from the history of the recording business, to the way musical taste is framed in the media, to the body of research on musical preference and personality, to the way our tastes are measured (and shaped) in the era of big data-and how these threads are connected. Using extensive research into the study of music preference, as well as interviews with some of the leading researchers in the field, the thesis sheds light on the psychological and social factors that underpin our musical identities.
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