A Review of the Dimensionality of Music Preferences: Age, Personality, and Cognitive Development

Why do we enjoy certain genres of music? Many authors of previous research papers have tried to answer this question, but it has only been a single dimensional study. In this paper, we can see how authors fail to take into consideration the many different factors that can affect our music preferences. Reviewing some papers which try to explain the science behind music preferences, we can form our own conclusions about how the data presented in multiple papers can flow together, and can provide a more well rounded approach to this field of research. For example, some papers might try to study music preferences as a direct effect of brain functionality, whereas others will try to describe it as a reflection of someone’s personality and EQ. This data will allow us to see which aspects of each dimension affect us specifically, and will let us draw conclusions about how they can be combined and cross references to reach a true consensus. Eventually, we can see how future research done in this area can be improved by studying the multiple dimensions related to music preferences, and seeing how this affects our everyday lives.