Musical Preferences and Their Influence on Emotional States and the Orientation Towards Life

Music is a common phenomenon that crosses all bodies of nationality, race and culture. Music affects us in ways that are personal and require psychological explanation. It is a divine and a spiritual phenomenon that expresses emotions, uplifts and inspires, touch the heart and heal and soothe the soul. The choice of a particular song can be subjective and situational, but the general and overall preference for a particular kind of music involves more psychological attributes. Music has a remarkable ability to conjure up emotions in individuals. Listeners are predisposed to their taste in music; and they have broadly convergent emotional interpretations of music. Keeping this background in view for the purpose of this study, differences in the musical preferences and the accompanying emotional states and the orientation towards life was studied on a sample of 100 female college students from the age group of 17-22 years. The findings observed differences in emotional states and the orientation towards life of the subjects showing preferences for upbeat or reflective music respectively.