Does personality affect how music fans consume music? Since the 1940s, theories have evolved including information as to how and why listeners choose the tracks they love. Preliminary studies were where the “Big Five Personality Traits” theory came into fruition. These personality traits include openness to experience, extraversion, conscientiousness, agreeableness, and neuroticism. In order to understand why certain people like dance music over other genres, we will be examining the trait which draws people to dance or electronic music; extroversion.

A person who has a high level of extroversion exhibits energy, a positive outlook, and occasionally talkativeness. Studies which spanned 50 different countries to draw from across cultures have shown that those who experience these higher levels of extraversion were more likely to be drawn to happy, upbeat, energetic, rhythmic and conventional music. Considering electronic and dance music can be defined by almost all of those descriptors, extroverts are clearly more inclined to enjoy dance music.

Extroverted individuals make up approximately one half of the American population. In a culture which generally rewards extraversion, it is no wonder the American music charts are riddled with electronic and dance beats such as the music found in “The Chase” mixed by Martin Brodin & Daniel Lindberg. This is not to say that those who do not display extroverted qualities dislike dance music. The fact that the music prevails so heavily in America and European countries displays that those of any personality can enjoy the genre, it is simply most common amount extroverts.

Join us next week as we explore the musical tastes of those who display high “openness to experience.”

You can purchase the compilation of the month, Magic, which includes “The Chase” and many more tracks on Amazon, iTunes, and Google Play.

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