Rap music. Imagine the type of person who listens to rap music. Now imagine the type of person who listens to classical. As objective as one attempts to be in response to the simple prompt above, one can often find him or herself relying on anecdotal data and stereotypes. Stereotypes are preformed images, views, or notions concerning specific groups, individuals, or things. In this case, individuals can form stereotypes about music as well as about music fans. Stereotypes can often be innocuous, harmless affectations of thought, like when an individual assumes that a person who likes to listen to classical music is intelligent. However, stereotypes can also be dangerous and harmful to music fans, the music genre, as well as to society as a whole. For example, if one were to stereotype those who prefer or listen to rap music as unintelligent, this would be detrimental to the entities listed above. This paper will explore the various genres of music, the stereotypes held of each genre’s fans, and the actual fan makeup in each genre devoid of stereotypes.

Stereotypes are, in some ways, how humans perceive and attempt to understand the outside world. A stereotype will serve as a thought, memory, knowledge or similar cognitive structure that shapes beliefs concerning specific entities. However, stereotypes often do not accurately capture the true nature of their subjects. This is due to how stereotypes of often learned. Rather than learning through traditional educational practices or well-respected material, stereotypes are often socially learned beliefs. This means that individuals garner stereotypes bye acquiring them from unofficial or biased sources such as their parents, friends, or the media. These can all be very influential sources of information because of the personal connection or misguided respect an individual might have for the source. Common examples of this social learning are stereotypes of racism being passed down through generations in select areas or stereotypes about how models maintain their figures, which subsequently affects how growing young women perceive their own bodies and judge beauty.

Stereotypes are also applicable in the realm of music and its genres. One of the main reasons stereotypes are so prevalent in music is because the art form lends itself so easily to personal identity. Music listeners heavily connect to their respective favorite bands. This can cause a transfer of style and individual expression from band to music fan. “Consider, for instance, people who wear T-shirts emblazoned with the names of their favorite bands, people who blare their music loudly so that others can hear, or people who adorn the walls of their rooms with pictures of their favorite artists” (McDonald, 329). This quote is an example of how individual fans style their real-life habits after what they perceive and take in from their favorite bands. A fan might attend a hard rock or heavy metal concert, hear loud music, and then return home to play the music over their speakers at a louder volume than before encountering the new stimulus. The quote also points out another potential cause for stereotype: music fans might potentially pick out their real-life clothes and style themselves after seeing what the members of their favorite band wear (Konsor). A common example of this stereotype is witnessed in the form of Emo. Emo fans are often stereotyped to wear black clothes and adorn “swooshy” hairstyles in order to complete the “Emo hair flip.” This is a stereotype, but it could also be the result of this genre’s music fans having seen a band such as Hawthorne Heights carry this style. Further, if a friend or a socially respected individual is seen wearing a certain band’s t-shirt or a certain identifiable style, per social learning theory, individuals whom are fans of that bands might start wearing similar clothing as well in order to fit in, thus augmenting the likelihood of a stereotype to occur.

Today, stereotypes in music also spread via social media. This is because younger generations (teenagers or young adults) are more likely to posit that their music preferences better communicate their personality and identity than more traditional forms of self-expression, such as movies or hobbies (McDonald, 330). This means that in order for a young person to feel as though they are genuinely expressing themselves, they communicate through musical artists and bands. This establishes the fact that music is a popular form of self-expression and connects music to the sense of self and identity. Thus, when an individual perceives another person, when that the former individual has current knowledge of the importance of music as a representation of identity, the individual might judge the other person through the filter of stereotype or learned knowledge such as music references, style cues, etc. The stereotype then manifests itself when the mentioned individual encounters and acquires more data points or interactions with music fans. The individual considers and evaluates the new data points and prescribes them to pattern-fulfilling cognitive biases.

In 2007, researchers Peter J. Rentfrow and Samuel D. Gosling sought to identify “the content and validity of stereotypes of fans of 14 different music genres (e.g. country, rap, rock)” (Rentfrow, 306). Rentfrow and Gosling aimed “to evaluate the validity of the belief that music preferences can serve as a clue to a person’s character. To this end, we examine the content and validity of stereotypes about fans of various music genres” (307). The researchers “predicted and found that individuals have robust and clearly defined stereotypes about the fans of various music genres (Study 1), and that many of these music-genre stereotypes posses a kernel of truth (Study 2)”(306). Rentfrow and Gosling first identified three major questions they wanted to explore in their research: “Are there stereotypes about fans of different music genres?” What is the content of the stereotypes? Are they accurate?” (307). Subsequently, Rentfrow and Gosling identified what was mentioned above that music is a major form of self-expression and often times grants individuals inclusion into social groups. This is to say that people tend to socialize with those whom have similar music tastes. Therefore, it is beneficial to the individual to express their music taste, as most human beings are social organisms and value acceptance and inclusion in strong social circles. The expression of music taste then comes with a physical form, unless the individual wants to blast their boom box while walking down the street (a manifestation of pre-earbud time). Individuals will seek to make their music taste easily identifiable to similarly inclined people, and this leads to stereotype.

As individuals seek to express themselves in easily identifiable ways (t-shirts, clothing styles, jewelry, hairstyles, color choices, etc.) outsides perceive those individuals in certain ways. This is the origin of stereotype as it relates to music and music preference. In order to approach this stereotype, Rentfrow and Gosling used a sample of 206 college undergraduates of diverse gender and ethnicity, aged 17 to 27. The study’s participants were then asked to rate music fans within a single genre of the 14 total music categories in terms of “personality descriptors, personal qualities, values and alcohol and drug preferences” (312). What Renfrow and Gosling wanted to explore was how their study’s participants organically assessed music fans. This would allow the researchers to gather a true and unbiased view of what stereotypes exist in the real world and perhaps how individuals come to gain those stereotypes. When the results came in, most participants, or judges, generally created a common consensus about what characteristics were held by the typical fan in each of the musical genres, with participants agreeing the most about stereotypes in the classical, rock, and religious music genres, and agreeing the least amount in the blue, pop, and sound track genres (313).

This establishes that people do in fact stereotype others in the context of music, and quite consistently at that. For example, participants in the study were asked to give their opinion about drug use in music and which drugs specific music fans preferred. Religious music fans were stereotyped to prefer wine or beer, but showed very little stereotype in regards to harder drugs such as Hallucinogens, marijuana, or ecstasy (317). On the other end of the spectrum, fans of rock music were stereotyped to engage in the use of most drugs with wine being the least common stereotype, followed by beer, marijuana, and then ecstasy. Further examples of stereotypes in music revolve around how the participants perceived the personality traits of fans within specific music genres. Rap fans were stereotyped to be more extraverted, rock fans as less conscientious, religious fans as less open and more agreeable, and classical music fans as more emotionally stable (315). Rentfrow and Gosling then followed up their first study by sampling 87 undergraduate students from the same university (the University of Texas at Austin) and studying the participants’ “personal preferences and everyday behavior” via a questionnaire (319). What Rentfrow and Gosling found was that many of the stereotypes that the participants in Study 1 opined were in fact partly true, especially in the categories of country, jazz, and religious music (320).

Stereotypes also manifest themselves in other ways in the context of music. For example, Bethany Bryson’s study “Anything But Death Metal” showed that music fans that are less educated are more likely to have not heard music from one of the 18 popular music genres they were given (Bryson, 895). This is another example that supports Rentfrow and Gosling’s findings that stereotypes in music are based in small truths. In terms of Bryson’s findings, this means that the stereotype that less educated music fans are more likely to not be as musically cultured is true. Conversely, educated individuals, according to Bryson, are more likely to be less exclusive in their music preferences. Bryson shows a strong correlation between level of education and openness to music.

What these studies reveal is that stereotypes can be helpful in organizing cognitive impressions of music fans. This means that an individual might be able to hone stereotypes and employ them to find like-minded people. For example, if the individual yearns to meet individuals with eclectic taste, he or she should seek out educated people. If that individual also wants to enter into a social group that does not value drug use, he or she could seek out fans of religious music. However, it is important to remember when considering stereotypes that Rentfrow and Gosling’s study found that stereotypes are only based on a small portion of the truth and not the whole truth. If this bit of information is ignored then stereotypes can become harmful and turn into prejudice. Nonetheless, stereotypes based on music genres can help individuals gauge others, quickly identify favorable social groups, and help develop a sense of personal identity. Thus, imagine the type of person who listens to rap or classical music. Recognize that the stereotype that comes to mind is based on gathered data from previous experience, but be aware that it is not all encompassing.