Why can one song give you chills while your friend wants to skip it? From familiarity and age to emotions and social identity, here’s why our music tastes can be so different.
Have you ever listened to your playlist with friends and heard someone say a song is “not really my type”?
Meanwhile, you’ve played it 50 times and can’t understand why it isn’t having the same effect on them.
How can one song stir up so many emotions in you while, for someone else, it’s simply a “no, thank you”?
Been there.
Music taste can feel incredibly personal, and there’s a reason for that. The music we connect with is shaped by our brains, memories, experiences, social circles and even how familiar certain sounds feel to us.
So why do people like such different types of music?
Music can have a surprisingly powerful effect on us.
Research has linked music listening with changes in stress, mood, pain perception and activity across parts of the brain involved in emotion, memory and reward.
Listening to music we enjoy can also activate the brain’s reward system, including the release of dopamine. This may help explain why certain songs can feel exciting, comforting or even addictive enough to play on repeat.
It’s also why music can become so closely tied to memories.
A song you haven’t heard for years can suddenly take you back to a specific person, place or period of your life within seconds.
But if music can have such a strong effect on us, why do we sometimes love one genre and instantly reject another?
There are a few reasons.
Not everyone listens to music in the same way.
Some people pay more attention to the beat, production, instruments or overall atmosphere of a track.
Others connect more strongly with lyrics, storytelling or the emotion in someone’s voice.
Think about a song with an incredible instrumental but very simple lyrics.
For someone who mainly cares about production, it might become an instant favourite. Someone who listens primarily for lyrics might find it completely forgettable.
Neither person is listening “wrong”. They’re simply responding to different parts of the music.
The music we hear during our teenage years and early adulthood can have a particularly strong influence on our taste.
These years are often full of new experiences, strong emotions and important memories, so the music surrounding those moments can become deeply connected to them.
That’s probably why hearing a song you loved at 16 can instantly make you feel like you’re 16 again.
As we get older, many people also become more settled in their listening habits.
You may find yourself returning to familiar artists, genres and sounds rather than constantly searching for something completely different.
That doesn’t mean your music taste stops changing, but discovering unfamiliar music can sometimes require a little more effort than it once did.
Music has always been about more than sound.
It can also be a way of showing who we are.
Especially during our teenage years, our friends, family and wider social groups can influence the artists and genres we discover.
Someone might get into punk because their friends listen to it, discover hip-hop through an older sibling or spend years hearing a certain genre at home because their parents love it.
Over time, music can become part of our identity.
Being a fan of a particular artist or genre can also give us a sense of belonging. Music creates communities, whether that’s around metal, electronic music, rap, indie, jazz or almost anything else.
Sometimes, liking a certain type of music is about the sound.
Sometimes, it’s also about the people and experiences connected to it.
There’s another surprisingly simple reason we tend to like certain music:
We’re used to it.
When you listen to a particular genre regularly, your brain becomes more familiar with its rhythms, structures, production styles and patterns.
That familiarity can make the music easier to process and predict.
There’s even a psychological phenomenon known as the mere-exposure effect, where repeated exposure to something can increase how much we like it.
You might not love a song the first time you hear it.
Then you hear it again.
And again.
Suddenly, a week later, it’s stuck in your head and you’re adding it to a playlist.
Sound familiar?
The opposite can happen when we hear something very different from what we normally listen to.
If a song doesn’t follow the patterns our brain expects, it can initially feel strange, chaotic or simply “not for me”.
That reaction can happen incredibly quickly.
You know when someone introduces you to a new genre, plays you one song and you immediately decide you don’t like the entire style?
Guilty.
But sometimes the problem isn’t that the music is bad.
It’s just unfamiliar.
A genre you initially struggle to understand may become much more enjoyable once you start recognising its rhythms, production choices or conventions.
Trying music outside your usual taste can be a good thing.
It exposes you to different sounds, perspectives and cultures.
You might discover an instrument you’ve never really noticed before, a style of production you love or an artist you never would have found inside your usual listening bubble.
And sometimes, discovering something completely unexpected is the best part of listening to music.
You don’t need to force yourself to love every genre.
But giving unfamiliar music a genuine chance before dismissing it can open up a much bigger world of music.
There probably isn’t one single reason you love the music you do.
Your taste is a mixture of your personality, memories, experiences, friends, family, culture, habits and the sounds you’ve heard throughout your life.
That’s what makes music taste so interesting.
Two people can hear exactly the same song and have completely different reactions to it.
One skips it.
One thinks it’s good.
And for someone else, it might become their new favourite track.
So the next time you’re introduced to a new artist, genre or sound, give it a chance.
Even if it’s only for 30 seconds.
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