What Does Your Music Collection Say About You?

Does you music collection say anything about you? It's a rather meaningless question because I doubt that most of us care one way or the other. I suppose I got to thinking about it after hearing so much hype on the news about Senator Paul Ryan's iPod habits.

I'm not an iPod person. My mp3 player is a Sansa e270. It has an 6Gb capacity which is more than enough for me. It's small, and it's easy to use and I use Rhapsody for downloading because it uses mp3 format rather than iTunes. I like to keep things simple.

My own taste in music is rather eclectic. An inventory of my mp3 player or CD collection reveals a lot of Native American and classic rock, a bit of country and bluegrass, some alternative/Indie, folk, R & B, jazz, and yes, even some of that easy listening stuff. With such a mix, I started thinking about what my music collection said about me. So what do we do when we want to know something. Yes, that's right, we Google it.

Quibblo.com

The first Google link pointed me to a Personality Quiz on Quibblo.com where I very thoughtfully answered ten questions that I found to be a bit odd and somewhat irrelevant. After hitting the submit button to receive my assessment, I was informed by Quibblo that I would need to join in order to save my results. I don't think so. I'm only doing this for fun. If I wanted a record of my personality test I would make an appointment with a shrink. So, I clicked OK to go to the test results and learned that according to Quibblo, I have a "retro" personality. That's it. That's all they told me. What the heck does that mean. Does it mean I'm old? Stuck in a time warp? Need to update my interests? I'm clueless.

OutofService.com

• The second Google result took me to Outofsevice.com where I took a test titled The Do-Re-Mi's of Personality. that I visited was much more comprehensive in it's questioning. First I was asked to measure my like-ability of about twenty different genres on a scale of radio buttons ranging from "dislike" to "like". The next ten questions were more about my personality and asked questions related to being introverted, aggressive, compassionate. And finally, a series of questions regarding my lifestyle, income, gender, race, etc. The time spent on the test was about 10 minutes and revealed:
• 441% enjoys reflective and complex music
• 33% enjoys edge and aggressive music
• 25% enjoys fun and simple music
• 7% enjoys energetic and upbeat music

I would have to say that the results are fairly accurate. But, didn't "I" tell "them" what I liked when I answered the first twenty questions? I don't think this told me much about my personality. Oh well.

I think I've wasted enough time this morning. It was fun, not very informative, but hey, it entertained me through the second cup of coffee and another hub. Everything these days is hub material, if I can put a spin on it. I wrote this one because I don't want my readers to think I don't have a light side. A large majority of my hubs tend to be inspired from emotion or treasured memories. Those could eventually become my niche but that is still undecided.

Ironically, these music personality tests proved to be as indicative of my writing style as it did my musical preferences. My best writing, I think, is when I am reflective and in my complex thinking mode and my high score of 41% on the Do-Re-Mi's of Personality test was right on the mark. Maybe I learned something after all.

The tests were fun. That's about it. In reality, my music tastes are eclectic, depending on my mood. My years of collecting vinyl records and CD's are slowly closing. Digital music is replacing them. It is bittersweet. Digital music does allow me to purchase only the songs I love while leaving the rest of a CD behind. Digital music also moves easily between my computer, mp3 player, and smart phone. It's affordable. Still there is something about holding that vinyl record in your hands or stepping through the tracks on a CD at lightening speed.

Music is a part of me and I am always a click away from having a new favorite. But, I won't forget my old favorites. i have written about a few of them. You might enjoy those hubs too. Take a look.