Did I listen to pop music because I was sad, or was I sad because I listened to pop music?

We haven't asked a scientist, because, frankly, we'd be afraid they'd laugh at us. But if we did ask a scientist "is this report which tells you what your musical taste says about your life based on a sound scientific principle, we think... well, that they'd laugh at us.

The University of Leicester has found - it says - that if you listen to dance or hip-hop, you're probably a criminal or something:

Some 56.9% of dance music devotees and just over half of hip-hop fans admitted to having committed a criminal act compared to just 17.9% of people who like musicals.

Which might just mean that people who like musicals are more likely to lie about having spent time in prison, lifting weights and trying to organise B-wing into an amdram presentation of Okalahoma.

[Classical music and opera listeners] were also more likely to have been educated to a higher level. 6.8% of opera fans had a PhD, compared to none of the chart pop fans. When it comes to eating, fans of classical music, opera and jazz tended to spend rather more money on food and preferred to drink wine to a greater extent than fans of other musical styles.

You see... this isn't the sort of thing you'd have come up with on the basis of anecodtal evidence, you know.

Only 1.5% of country music fans have had more than one sexual partner in the last year, which suggests that if their babies have done gone left them, they're happy to take themselves in hand.

music study