What are your music tastes? | INFJ Forum

What are your music tastes?

ImpureHedonism

ImpureHedonism

Community Member
Jul 2, 2012
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MBTI
INFJ
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Probably 5w4 or 5w6
Music tastes are a great way to understand a person's personality. It's not a matter of the silly dichotomies many MBTI tests use, like "using emotion over thinking" (what, like just acting on impulse?) or "I have a sense of adventure" (does that mean skydiving, or enjoying an epic book like the Illiad?). Music is deeper than that, and can't be right or wrong, just as much favorite colors can't be wrong. The complexity, tone, mood, etc of music makes it deeply personal, or at least reflective of how one senses life to be. All art is like that, but I want to focus on music here.

I am wondering if fellow INFJs have similar tastes as me. If you're not an INFJ, that's fine too, I'm still curious to see how your tastes are similar or different. For me, an INFJs taste is probably something melancholic, and also energetic at times in a simplistic way. This is pretty similar to INFP, but INFJ is more inclined towards excitement of emotion due to extroverted feeling.

The Cure, Bauhaus, Siouxsie and the Banshees, Depeche Mode, The Smiths - these are all bands I'm extremely fond of. None of them are particularly "happy", and The Cure are especially emotional. Yet I also like a fair amount of punk music like The Clash, Dead Kennedys, The Ramones. Those aren't "happy" either, but they all can be intense. As for recent stuff, I like Ladytron, My Chemical Romance, Silversun Pickups. Altogether, these bands give off similar emotional vibes. I still like some upbeat music - jPop, or Motown music. But those seem to be anomalies, as any individual has.

So, describe your music tastes! I'll link one of my favorite songs:

[video=youtube;0x7vX2nBxFo]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0x7vX2nBxFo[/video]
 
Interesting topic.

Well my musical interests are fixed mostly in the Electronic Dance Music: Trance, PsyTrance, House Music in particular. I often enjoy more relaxed Chill Out music, in particular Acid Jazz and Ambient Music.
 
That would depend on my mood, but I love soft and somewhat simple piano music. For instance, the CD "Wildflowers" by Solitudes.com played by Robi Botos. He normally plays jazz too rich for my likings, but man can this guy talk with his music. He must be in love with music.

Then there's Led Zeppelin. Sad violin. Bach cello suites. More later. I love music. Sometimes something someone says is music to my ears. Read some music moments ago like that.
 
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ImpureHedonism said:
I am wondering if fellow INFJs have similar tastes as me. If you're not an INFJ, that's fine too, I'm still curious to see how your tastes are similar or different. For me, an INFJs taste is probably something melancholic, and also energetic at times in a simplistic way. This is pretty similar to INFP, but INFJ is more inclined towards excitement of emotion due to extroverted feeling.
Click to expand...

Nope, completely different tastes.

I like involved, intricate, "epic", songs with melodic tones. I also like knowing a thing or two about the people making the music; when all these things click, then I'll add them to my "favorite bands" list. For instance - composers like Bach or Mozart may have composed great pieces, but we have no way to know how they played them as musicians and the symphonies that play them today each sound slightly different. Even though I might like the pieces, a large symphony or a long-dead composer won't make it to the top of my list.

I like odd time signatures that are hard to mindlessly tap your foot or dance to. I like lyrics that either tell a strong story or are deeply moving. I like experimentation with various sounds and instruments (keyboards, strings, effects, etc.) as long as the instrument is still being played well. And the absolute must for any song... the bands need to play a real instrument!

Some of my favorites are the early-mid Progressive Rock bands that have been around for a while. The Who, Queen, Rush, Jethro Tull, Yes, Styx and newer bands like Dream Theater, Symphony X and Apocalyptica.

[video=youtube_share;JKw8SqqeCJ0]http://youtu.be/JKw8SqqeCJ0[/video]
 
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This is an awesome thread. :eek:)

And it's hard for me to answer. My tastes really do vary quite a bit--I know that people say that a lot, but my cd collection (now I feel older) has ranged from death metal to hip hop to classical piano to NYC hardcore punk. The last three bands played on my phone today were the Clash, Mumford & Sons, and David Bowie.

My famous "five bands" are: nine inch nails, Tool, Led Zeppelin, Live, and Red Hot Chilli Peppers. I like things with interesting basslines/beats that I've been known to call "sexy." I'm also about emotional catharsis through music and wicked/clever lyrics, so my music generally reflects my mood or I play music to specifically get into a particular mood.

Lately I've also been revisiting my formative years and listening to a lot of grunge and alternative (which I always thought was the silliest name for a genre). It's fun to remember why I fell in love with it all and feel nostalgic twinges of what it used to make me feel.
 
INFJ

I like a lot of genres.
I grew up listening to old rock, reggae, stuff like jimmy cliff and the maytals.

About 12 I started with kiss, but gravitated toward black sabbath. The new wave thing was going in so at the time I liked stuff like joe Jackson. Blonde. I cringe a little thinking bout that now. I guess at 17 it was sabbath, zeppelin, Halen. I started with the sex pistols, dead Kennedys.

I like piano jazz. About 6 years ago I listened to the Deftones pretty exclusively. Land of god, kittie, etc. but they don't seem mature or half measures in some way. But it's what's there.

Now I found Myles Kennedy.
Didn't really just find him. Known if him for about ten years. But I liked the grunge era, and band like creed in the 90s. So Alter Bridge is the band and music I love now. I liked Myles so much I listened to his earlier stuff from the mayfield four. Then even before that, a lot jazzier Citizen Swing. Now he's doing stuff with Slash and is maybe getting a little more well known.

I tend to find something I totally relate to and become obsessed. At least music, art, stories I do. But this groove has me fixed for about 5 years now.
 
In terms of music, I'm basically easy to please, but hard to impress.

I generally like pop/indie/rock. But I sometimes can listen to electronica, world music, classical music (mainly piano), and old rock.

My staples are Arcade Fire, Avril Lavigne, Bloc Party, Death Cab For Cutie, Howling Bells, Interpol, Linkin Park, Metric, Muse, Placebo, Yeah Yeah Yeahs. These are all from my formative years.

More recently, I've been into Three Days Grace, Billy Talent, Angels and Airwaves, and Birdy. I can't listen to my staples all the time, and I cherish finding new hidden gems that I really like.

There are one off songs I really like - that everyone likes. e.g. "Iris" by Goo Goo Dolls, "Wonderwall" by Oasis, and "Nocturne" by Secret Garden (who won the Eurovision Contest in 1995).
 
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I wonder if at the same time music taste has to do with exposure. Classic rock is what I liked most at first - Led Zeppelin, The Who, Deep Purple, Cream, Jimi Hendrix, Pink Floyd. And I really was crazy about Led Zeppelin, but they don't quite speak to my emotion regardless of how much I enjoy them. It's probably The Cure and The Smiths that speaks to me the most in an emotional sense, or anything along that line of emotion (like Placebo or Interpol listed above). I regularly listen to a whole slew of alternative, but the emotional impact isn't all that strong.
 
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Just about anything as long as it sounds appealing, with a slight predilection for rap.
 
Almost anything rock/pop, especially it if it has heavy psychedelic leanings or is weird, but nothing too abrasive or gloomy. I also greatly prefer male singers to female singers... though it depends on the context.

Some of my favorite bands are: The Beatles, The Kinks, The Flaming Lips, The Olivia Tremor Control, Animal Collective, Pink Floyd, and The Pixies.
 
I'll listen to most anything, preferably if it has some vibrancy a/o emotion to it.

Eyedea and Abilities. Loreena McKennitt. Red Hot Chili Peppers. Nujabes. Staind. Creed. Rishloo. Pink Floyd. Nick Drake. Poets of the Fall. E.S Posthumus. Parov Stelar. Fleet Foxes. Nu. Frederic Chopin. Camille Saint-Saens. Dj Okawari. Lowkey. Gregory Allan Isakov. Eminem. Florence + the Machine. Tracy Chapman. The Fray. Prokofiev. En Route Project. Olafur Arnalds. Unknown Prophets. Yann Tiersen. Sigur Ros. Sufjan Stevens (especially "The Owl and the Tanager"). Tool. A Perfect Circle. Winds. Opeth. 10 years. Matchbox Twenty. Dream Theater. Mumford and Sons. Bjork. Riverside. Gregory and the Hawk. Flobots.

Those're all the names I could think of off the top of my head.
 
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I feel I have a broad taste in music. I can find songs from just about every genre and time period I like.
(I'm not going to get into making a list as I just don't have the patience.)
Unlike some people my age that are stuck on only listening to the classic rock station. I mean, come on! At some point you should evolve beyond Hotel California by the Eagles!
The one music style though that I still really respond to is metal. When I do put metal music on, it really gets my synapses firing.
:rockon:
 
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[video=youtube;_Mn2cmsaIs4]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Mn2cmsaIs4[/video]

Devo. Only Devo. Always and forever.
 
I am still discovering every day, new and old. I like music that tells a story and tells the truth, especially lyrically. For that reason my heart belongs always to Sufjan Stevens. Beach House comes a close second. Nina Simone third.

:m114: The monkey says that's cool with him.
 
Another thing: Really, really, and I mean really good musicianship!

[video=youtube_share;W4P_OofC3xM]http://youtu.be/W4P_OofC3xM[/video]
 
I like just about everything. Anything and everything. rock, metal, alternative, indy, punk, blues, hip hop, classical, dance, trance, trippy, bassy, sexy, jazz, instrumental, 'world music'- different cultures, theatrical, obscure etc. Lately ive been buying meditation 'white noise' style music which Im enjoying a lot.

I do distinguish between 'real' music, made by musicians and artists as opposed to the manufactured white bread crapola. Music sounds empty when its not real. I love how with real music it just says so much, opens up whole new worlds and gives us common ground to interpret and relate. I love the storytelling, poetry, emotional intensity and the energy of good music.

I know what you mean about 'sadness' though [MENTION=5711]ImpureHedonism[/MENTION]. There is a lot of music I enjoy that could be percieved in this way. On of my friends calls it 'poke needles in your eyes music- like The Cure, The Smiths, Smashing Pumpkins, Placebo, Perfect Circle, Marilyn Manson, Hole, Radiohead, Tea Party, Nine inch nails etc. I dont necessarily see that music as sad, I find some of it really elating in a way. Its hard to explain. But I guess its the emotional intensity, regardless of the specific nature of the emotion, that I enjoy the most.

The genre that i guess i am most drawn to and feel most comfortable with is grunge. Its probably because i grew up with it. I just love the dirty rawness of it. I guess i would call it my favourite genre

One of my favourite things to do when listening to music is to close my eyes and let my mind create a 'videoclip', just letting the music paint the pictures
 
I like Howard Shore, Michael Giacchino, Luigi Boccherini, J S Bach, Michael Buble, Arcangelo Corelli, Great Big Sea, Two Steps from Hell, Ennio Morricone, W A Mozart.

That's all I can think of for now.
 
I find that music is not just mathematical, it is the painting of sound that amplifies emotion. I am quite eclectic in my music choices and prefer to go with music that tugs my heart moreso than restricting it to genres. Lyrics are important to me but some artists that I have been prone to like more than one song are: Jason Mraz, Leonard Cohen, U2, Blue October, Al Green, Otis Redding, Anouk, Chris Cornell. There are some where strictly it is the emotion of the music like B.B. King, Pavarotti, Rachmaninoff, Gustav Mahler, Satriani to name a few.
 
My two favorites are Incubus, and Breaking Benjamin...for whatever reason I'm not even sure why...outside of that this list is pretty much a general idea of my tastes.

Oooooh only one video per post. Okay, I'll just leave the last one and the rest oh well.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nzyNWyZhUS0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qiSCQgGltCI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DsixWMdScUI
[video=youtube;S4v-_p5dU34]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S4v-_p5dU34 [/video]

I looked [MENTION=4108]Radiant Shadow[/MENTION]'s list and mine is similar to that.
 
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