How America's music tastes have changed

Pacific Standard -  A new study that examines the musical genres Americans abhor offers an intriguing look into who we do, and do not, care to affiliate with. This has apparently shifted, as the types of tunes we find distasteful have changed significantly over the past two decades.

The types of music that are more disliked today are those "that appeal to disproportionately white, rural, Southern audiences."

University of Notre Dame sociologists Omar Lizardo and Sara Skiles began their research by looking at the "cultural module" of the 1993 General Social Survey. The 1,606 participants were presented with a list of 18 styles of music, from big band to reggae, and asked whether they liked, disliked, or had "mixed feelings" about each.

In the summer of 2012, the researchers partly replicated that study. They commissioned a survey of 2,250 Americans (a representative sample of the total population) and asked the same question, this time limiting the results to 15 musical genres.

"The most obvious change (over the 20 years) consists of the steep declines in the probability of younger persons to reject rap and heavy metal," Lizardo and Skiles write. "Only about one-fifth of young Americans reject rap and hip-hop, a figure that is lower than that observed for country, bluegrass, gospel or opera for this age group."

The biggest shift in this regard came from young people with the highest education levels. This suggests they are using rap and hip-hop to differentiate themselves from the older generation of well-to-do Americans.

These same "high-status newcomers" were more likely than their counterparts of 20 years ago to declare their distaste for classical music and jazz, as well as rock 'n' roll. "While in 1993, a college-educated person between the ages of 25 and 29 had an 8 percent chance of disliking classical (music), in 2012, a respondent in that same age-education group had a 15 percent chance (of doing so)," the researchers write.

Overall, "the probability of disliking decreased for seven musical styles (classical music, opera, jazz, Latin, rap, rock, and metal), and increased for four styles (country, bluegrass, folk, and religious/Gospel music)," the researchers write. (Ratings for show tunes, blues and R&B, and reggae remained roughly the same in the 1993 and 2012 surveys.)