Multiple studies have been done on the effects of music in our everyday lives. Just the other day, we spoke about the methods that we use to reduce our stress in my class discussion. At least one-third of the class replied with saying that they listen to music. Why is it that we listen to different music at different times and what does our music choice say about our personality? Here are a few theories that may explain this love for diverse categories of music.

1. Music can uplift our mood and make us happier, especially when we focus on the experience of it.

2. People who have recently gone through a breakup or bad experience often choose to listen to music that has a negative tone and is more relatable.

3. There is an obvious overlap in music preference and whether or not the person is an introvert or extravert.

4. A recent study had participants listen to a short piece of happy, upbeat music versus sad music. They found that people were more likely to say a neutral expression was happy or sad based on the music that they had just heard.

5. We can interpret the emotions of a song without feeling the same emotions. This is why some people find sad, negative songs more enjoyable than depressing.

6. Another study compared couples' top music choices and found that they were consistent with each partner's personality traits.

7. Emotional stability, openness to experience, and extraversion were the easiest personality traits to predict based on the types of music individuals commonly listened to.

8. Kids who have had three years of experience playing an instrument showed improved fine motor skills. They also tested better in analyzing and interpreting visual information and vocabulary.

9. It can help improve our performance while doing physical activities. Music pushes to hold our brain's attention, therefore causing us to be distracted and dismiss feeling tired during a workout.

10. In a test of both driving and visual attention, participants had the worst performance during silence when compared to while music was playing.

According to a research study done at Heriot-Watt University:

• Opera fans: More likely to be gentle, creative, and confident
• Country fans: More likely to be outgoing and hard working
• Rap fans: More likely to be outgoing and confident
• Rock/heavy metal fans: More likely to be less hard working, creative, introverted, and have low self-esteem
• Classical: More likely to be creative, have low self-esteem, be more at ease, and introverted

Of course, not all of these assumptions hold true, but they did find a pattern among these traits and music choice. As we all know, music is part of our culture and it is around every corner of society, drowning out problems or intensifying our experiences. Overall, it can affect our feelings and perceptions in a variety of ways. This can improve our focus and cause us to feel more uplifted in everyday life! It's all just another reason to love music.