Does the music that you prefer reveal your personality? ( Archived) (282)

yer ilove.......Sinatra.....that man could sing....a sad day when he passed away....

I knew YOU weren't being sarcastic but it was a perfect opportunity to give you a hard time...

Not I am not !

Hmmm..well, I've never known any (what I'd consider to be) non-smart people liking classical music, for instance. I think that's a good example of a music that requires a minimally pretty solid intelligence (certainly brilliance isn't required!).

The "cerebral" part certainly applies to me. I like music that has something intelligent to say...though of course that's rather open to interpretation. From my observation - well, all my friends are very bright, so this might be a biased inventory - this applies to bright people in general.

But we'd need a scientific study of some form to answer this question at least semi-definitively. But surely intellectual and mental development is related to the kinds of music we're able to appreciate. After all, there's a reason we go from listening to kids' nursery rhyme music to Mahler's Tenth, no?

Well, her essential claim is that people can experience the emotional content of music more or less directly, I think. The problem is that there is quite a lot to anyone's given emotional response, and that there is much more to evaluating and appreciating a piece of music than simply whatever emotions it generates in you. There is much more to music than it being "joyous," "depressing," "angry," or whatever. That surely is a part of a piece of music - the emotions it generates in you (which may be rather different from what's generated in someone else!) - but there is also the skill and complexity and sheer beauty/majesty of the composition.

There are many classical and modern pieces (was just listening to Barber's Adagio for Strings today) that are extremely sad or tragic-sounding at points that are also flat-out gorgeous and cleverly composed pieces of music. Adagio for Strings is pretty mournful, but it is also beautiful. Rand presumably would've lambasted it for having a "bad sense of life." That's the kind of nonsensical, simplistic extension of her philosophy to areas where it doesn't sensibly apply.

I'm a "Rand Fan," but I do disagree with her about music. I think Rand had a problem with overestimating her acuity in certain areas - music being one of them. I think her knowledge and appreciation of music was extremely limited, and that she attempted to extend her philosophic insights beyond their range when she held forth on the subject. I'm saying, she knew something about philosophy, but very little about music (or biology, psychology, science in general, and made the same mistakes there when she over-extended her philosophic abilities beyond her knowledge and competence).

A sharp mind is different than an informed mind.
The best scenario would be to have a sharp mind and to be informed.

I do agree with you in that people who like classical music ought to be informed for the history, the composers, the techniques, the place of origin, the circumstances…

Btw A friend of mine has a son whose has some mental problems and he is now 21 yr o but can not attend any of the regular school because his mental development is like a 6 yr o but he loves Classical music.

Well, good point. Hey, my cat loves classical music, too (and hates mine!)...but then she's a pretty brilliant cat.

Also, some autistic people have bizarrely powerful insights and skills, usually in a fairly narrow field. Is your friend's son autistic by any chance?

In any case, there's an exception to most rules. I'm speaking very generally, of course.