Musical taste is often treated as a question of what people enjoy, but new research suggests the music people hate can be just as revealing.
Amanda Krause, a senior lecturer in psychology at James Cook University, said musical taste shapes social identity, personal expression and everyday behaviour.
“Traditionally, research into musical taste has focused on the types of music a person likes,” Dr Krause said
“But new research shows musical dislikes are not just the absence of preference. They serve important psychological and social functions. So an understanding of musical taste must incorporate negative evaluations and the reasons behind them.”
The researchers examined the musical dislikes of 1078 people in Australia, China, Singapore and the US across 49 genres.
“We found that aversion to music is not simply the absence of enjoyment. Instead, it appears to have a distinct psychological structure shaped by emotion, complexity, social identity and personal taste,” Dr Krause said.
The team identified five key dimensions underlying musical aversion: displeasure, complexity, sentimentality, social incongruence and mainstream orientation.
“Two of these factors were particularly important. Displeasure, referring to an immediate negative emotional response and social incongruence, when music feels inconsistent with a person’s identity or social world, were the strongest predictors of intense dislike,” Dr Krause said.
The findings also point to both universal and culturally shaped aspects of musical taste.
“Basic feelings of displeasure appeared consistent across cultures, while responses to musical complexity and sentimentality varied according to cultural context,” Dr Krause said.
The researchers also found that individual characteristics, such as personality and the ways people engage with music, explained more variation in why people disliked particular music than their country of background.
“The results suggest that musical rejection can serve several purposes beyond simply avoiding unpleasant sounds. People may steer away from music because it conflicts with their emotions, feels overly complicated or sentimental, or carries social associations they do not identify with,” Dr Krause said.
She said this active avoidance can help people regulate their emotions, navigate cultural boundaries and communicate who they are.
“What listeners reject may reveal important information about their identities and social worlds, just as much as the music they choose to embrace.
“People do not simply select music they like. They also use what they avoid to shape their emotional experiences and signal where they belong.”
The research was published in the Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, link here.
