IT's Musical Habits

operand sent in a fun little article about the listening habits of IT. It seems that developers are headbangers, Microsoft certified pros are Britney fans, and management goes for Mozart. Tragically The Who is not included... Linux users tend toward Electronica, and Security goes for The Dead.

200 students? that's it?

[bje2]

"Shockingly, the results of its poll among 200 students at the Training Company's UK residential courses reveal that developers are malodorous headbangers playing air guitar to Megadeth, Microsoft Certified professionals get their rocks off to Britney while IT directors can be found sipping the finest wines while Mozart tinkles away in the background. No stereotype-fulfilling findings there, then.

Wow, a poll of a whole 200 students...not exactly a big enough sample size for this study to be taken seriously...plus, what do the british know about music anyway...(oh, c'mon)...

How apt

[the_unknown_soldier]

Job: Microsoft-certified professionals Favoured genre: Mainstream pop Top three bands: 1. Britney Spears Listening to corporatised crap, while creating corporatised crap

What's the point ?

[mirko]

Should we try to figure out what we should do because some underused psycho chose to make a barely pertinent musical taste study ?
I thought the music that we listen too was more related to whom we listen to music with, so if you have a manager who grew in some Bronxesque area, he'd listen to the Ramones or Public Enemy rathger than to Mozart...

Oh, please

[stratjakt]

Heh heh MS is gay people hoo lik MS lissen to bertney spears he heh hee

This is about as useful as saying...

[Vexler]

...that the Chinese have great food, the Japanese have great swords, and the Koreans are all cross-eyed.

I do agree that the functions of the brain that enable logical and organizational thinking somehow also enable either strong inclination for music or strong musical abilities. But to say that developers or *nix admins tend to like different kinds of music is going a bit far.

Comment removed

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

The Fall

[16K Ram Pack]

Obsure band, but a lot of programming people seem to like them.

Re:Britney is greatly underrated

[Anonymous Coward]

she is popular for a very good reason.

And that would be because she appeals to the lowest common denominator?

Re:Poetic...

[Otter]

You can't make this stuff up.

Oh, no. I'm sure a statistically meaningful survey classified 200 people into 7 groups, each of which turned out have entirely distinct, internally consistent, top 3 preferences!

Of course this stuff is made up!

Bach?

[Groote Ka]

Peculiar that Johann Sebastian Bach does not appear anywhere. Of course considering the popular work of Douglas R. Hofstadther on Goedel, Esscher and Bach.
But also considering the logical build-up of the music. Looking at friends and colleagues, I have a feeling that there are more Bach lovers among beta people than there are among alpha people.

Re:I must be the odd man out...

[Anonymous Coward]

It's fairly obvious you can avoid listening to those around you. Cubicles only give you a visual sense of privacy. You hear everything through these walls. People loudly describing their medical conditions on the phone, people clipping fingernails, farting, eating, snoring...music is necessary to anyone who can't just shut their door.

The Dead

[bludstone]

Of course, refers to The Grateful Dead.

While often simply dismissed musically as "hippie crap" and "meaningless poetic fluff," this is not what is important here.

What is important is that The Dead flies right in the face of the music industry.

You see, The Dead is often considered to be the most sucessful band in history, as they have played in front of more people then any group in musical history. Not only that, but each year the group (or whats left of them) makes millions in profits from various sales.

All the while giving away the vast majority of their music for free! [gdlive.com]

This is my favorite example of a "happy middle ground" that can be reached between bands and listeners. Sorry RIAA, your claims are false. And The Grateful Dead proves it.

Slight correction

[Anonymous Coward]

Mozart + Handel + Vivaldi == Classical "Lite"

Have to be careful here with music tastes

[ScottGant]

You comment on ANY type of music saying that you're not into it or don't understand it and you're labled "closed minded" and have no understanding at all on music.

What is it with people. Can't anyone have likes and dis-likes in music? If someone says they don't like hip-hop, then people jump down their throats calling them small-minded, yet would a hip-hop fan sit down and listen to an album of Hank Williams Sr.? Or Patsy Cline?

Would a fan of opera actually spend his or her time going to the store to buy a Megadeth album? Life is too short, there are only so many hours in a persons life they can actually listen to and enjoy music...why waste it on stuff you don't like?

There is no one out there that likes every form of music there is, you may think you do, but trust me, there is always something out there that will make your skin crawl no matter what you like. If you like a particular style or genre of music, don't worry if someone else doesn't like it. Music is a personal thing.

People are different! Wow, what a concept!

Re:Heavy Metal, why am I not surprised?

[Oestergaard]

Ever occurred to you that we could be into music played on real instruments simply because of the technology *not* involved in making it?

When you code 10-14 hours a day, I find it's nice to listen to something *not* coming out of a computer (well, ok, the sound *is* coming out of a computer, but way back once it actually came out of an analog instrument).

The beat is set by a human being, an undertuned 8-string guitar roars thru the distorted tube amplifier (ok and then it all goes into a 12-bit ADC, back and forth between different media and in the end comes out of speakers attached to a computer - but never mind the last part.) - see, that is the kind of music that gets me thru the day in front of the 22" CRT :)

Re:Have to be careful here with music tastes

[jc42]

, yet would a hip-hop fan sit down and listen to an album of Hank Williams Sr.? Or Patsy Cline?

Well, by some chance, I happen to know that my wife's current collection of CDs in her car for the drives to/from work include Eminem and Patsy Cline. No Hank Williams Sr or Jr at the moment, but they are in the collection.

She has mentioned humming some of Eminem's songs (which often do have real melodies, unlike most rap) at meetings, and enjoying the grins of the few people who recognize them. This is in a medical IT environment, FWIW.

Re:Age profile

[michael path]

As a 24-year old Security Administrator, I love Pink Floyd, but my tastes more closely match the "Linux" profile.

Frankly, that survey seems lame, and wildly inaccurate at best.

I was a teenager when Green Day and the Offspring were all that. I couldn't like the Offspring any less.

Re:The Dead

[h0mer]

That only works because of the style of music that they play. Each song can be quite different each time they perform it because they could jam in a plethora of ways. For the most part, any live versions are going to sound quite different than studio versions.

Let's also not forget the heavy drug use that was rampant at Dead shows. I don't think everyone would be groovin' out to a 20-minute song if the crowd was straight-edge.

The Grateful Dead are the exception, not the rule. I don't see many kids following punk bands around.

Re:Have to be careful here with music tastes

[dasmegabyte]

I'm a Mac user (who also runs gentoo and Win2k). I listen to hip hop and I absolutely love Patsy Cline (my dad has all her records, he dated her once and made a complete ass of himself). I also enjoy opera (prefer German to Italian, which grates a little), own every Megadeth record and have no problem switching between any of these styles of music in the context of a Party Shuffle.

There is only one type of music I won't listen to, and that's lazy, overproduced, low concept pop. If a person doesn't care enough to at least make the best, most interesting music they can regardless of their chosen stylistic patterns, I don't want to hear it.

Incidentally, the reason most hip-hop fans assume their opponents are closed minded is that most people who hate the music hate it solely on the wack bullshit they play on the radio. That boring, unlyrical crunk/pimp crap is not hip-hop, no matter what they tell you -- it's as much hip-hop as Britney is rock and roll, or Avril Lavigne is punk. An opinion based on these input media would be like basing your opinion on pastries on a pop tart, or basing your opinion on the outdoors on some swamp.

Re:Have to be careful here with music tastes

[pileated]

Right you are. It's part of the moral cowardice that grew out of the 60s, of which I was a part I might add. Better to say everything is OK than say that something is good and something bad, or you like one thing but not the other, because God forbid you might offend someone or maybe worse might be proved wrong. Instead take no stand on anything. In place of moral decision making the godawful, senile, century-old "irony" took its place, and still stays there, stinking up everything it touches.

All music is techno or electronica.

[jotaeleemeese]

Unless you are singing without instrumental accomopaniament, or beating yourself as a drum, or whistling.

Oh, you mean, electronic technology?

All music, even high, classical, concert or cult music (whatever name you want to use) nowadays is made using during its conposition, performance or both electronic technology.

I don't understand why you get so worked out about a niche genre whose most outstanding feature is the endles boring repetition of loops.

Re:Have to be careful here with music tastes

[xdroop]

Actually, it is more a knee-jerk reaction to the holy-wars which engulf any potential difference. I choose $x, and therefore anything which is not $x is eeeeviiiil.

Exhibit A: emacs v. vi

Exhibit B: Windows v. the world

Etc.

It is far easier to pass on the whole mess with the touchy-feely crap.

Re:Have to be careful here with music tastes

[An Onerous Coward]

You call it moral cowardice. I call it humility.

There is absolutely nothing forbidding me from expressing likes and dislikes for specific hobbies, interests, worldviews, etc., etc. Everyone has these preferences. But when you start elevating your own predilections into some sort of fundamental moral truth, by ascribing your own preferences to "The Will of God" or "Scientific Truth" or "The Will of the People" or whatever euphemism you prefer for turning preferences into fact, then you're not showing "moral courage." You're simply proving that you're human for having preferences, and egotistical enough to consider them binding on everyone else.

Given the barrage of nonsensical and contradictory moral absolutes that bombard us every day, irony sounds comparatively pleasant.

Re:Have to be careful here with music tastes

[DunbarTheInept]

Exhibit A is bad. The emacs vs vi rivalry is hardly serious, and in the end both sides know it doesn't matter. Why? Because you can take my file I created in vi, and edit it in your emacs, and when you're done with it I can take it back and edit it some more in my Vi. The choice of text editor is truly a Personal Choice - it affects nobody but yourself. The things people usually get worked up the most over are the things where other people's choices end up affecting you whether you like it or not. The fact that Windows is popular affects everyone, even those who don't choose it for themselves - they still have to use it anyway to work along with those that did choose it.

Re:Have to be careful here with music tastes

[LetterJ]

I've found that it's a general rule that a given genre's fans are way more restrictive than the artists themselves in what they consider great music.

Re:200 students? that's it?

[Anonymous Coward]

>>in exactly the same way that Canada is American.

apt but functionally poor analogy. Canada and the United States of America might share the same continent, but the whole world thinks "USA" when you say "America".

I am Canadian & you will never hear me call myself "American".