ok, well, that may be a little strong, but that—in a crude way—summarizes the findings of professor adrian north of heriot-watt university in scotland. at this university, north engaged the largest and most in-depth research project concerning music and personality that has ever been done. more than 36,000 people from around the world participated in a series of questions regarding musical styles and their personality.

as the music fan that i am (and also someone currently working in advertising, which this research addresses), i find this particularly interesting. of course, like any research, as in-depth and thorough as it may be, there are still a lot of broad assumptions and generalizations that have been made. it’s far too easy to sum someone up in a quick category, but i’m sure professor north has some very lengthy research behind what i will post here and what i found on a website.

here’s some of the findings (i condensed this list to just the most prominent styles of music. for the entire list and story, click here.)