"People with far-right politics may have poor taste in music due to rigid cultural views, resistance to diverse influences, and a preference for simplistic, nationalistic themes over artistic complexity."
And yet, it's not so simple, given there are many who are shocked to find Rage Against the Machine is "woke." It's not just their views. It's that they aren't listening.
Sam Fender makes an emphatic point in this song reflecting upon how cultural diversity in music is invaluable. Notice NOT what is there but what is MISSING.
“I sit here and mansplain everything…” is a genius way to end the song.
Never thought of it just being him and the guitar as a thematic point. Now I really want to hear a reply from Holly Humberstone, Massie Peter’s or Lauren Mayberry.
Most great music is progressive in some way, helps us see the world and ourselves in a new way. Conservatives don't want to challenge the status quo or gain self-awareness.
Unfortunately it's not always true
You can have sophisticated nazis, I recommend "Imperium" (with Daniel Radcliffe), it has a really good scene about that
Though crass idiots tend to both have shit taste AND vote far-right so it's more of a "correlation, not causation" thing
Yeah but they’re European. What’s up with the USA specifically in this regards? Give me 1 example of a right wing American with taste that’s anything but tacky as hell?
I was unclear. The movie Imperium (with Radcliffe playing an american) takes place in the US and is an exploration of the many flavours the far-right can take. Among those is an upper-class WASP who's also a great connoisseur of classical music, and expresses disdain towards the vulgar skinheads
I don't know real-life examples though. But I'm not sure it's that easy to draw a generality. I think it has a lot more to do with social class than nationality. The US specificity might be that even far-righters with taste won't display it, because they're trying to rally the average voter
If they flaunt their culture and taste, it makes them look elitist which is precisely the aesthetic that the current populist US far-right is trying to avoid, what with claiming they're "against the elites and the system"
Short: I think part of US F-R shit taste is necessary for PR reasons
Real love of art requires empathy. The core of art is to connect your feelings to that of the art/artist.
Far right weirdos cant do this, so they have no taste and cant understand the appeal of art that isnt "functional" to them. Its also why they glaze NFTs so hard. Its (art?) that "has a purpose"
I read an article years ago in some psychology magazine, about there being two types of brain, an eco & an ego. It’s a spectrum, the eco generally being left wing people, the ego generally being right wing people. We all fall somewhere in this spectrum.
Those that are more to the ego side don’t have empathy, and to enjoy art you need empathy. So because of this they tend to only really “get”, obvious art, anything with nuance doesn’t register. So the sort of music they like tends to be bland & obvious.
For more context, from the article, the eco brain type are those people that see themselves as being a small part of a big universe. The ego type are those folk that think the world revolves around them.
Yeah but no… Ezra Pound wrote brilliant poetry, Dali supported Franco… I have a harder time finding these examples in music though, once right-wing ideology is there the tune always sours
I do think those are largely exceptions, partly because they were artists first before they were conservatives. The average conservative, especially these days, hates and fears art but wants to be able to wield its cultural influence.
And I say this as a Black Metal fan and artist, though the genre is loaded with problematic figures who are or were great artists, their ideology isn't the focus of their music. It's when it is that things get bad.
Good art tends to do things like spark thought, to move emotions like empathy, to open the consumer of it to different perspectives and ideas. It's good for growth and change.
Conservatives push against those things by definition.
As a former neurologic music therapist, there is fascinating evidence on how rhythm (and music) shapes the brain. Our musical tastes get formed during adolescence and remain throughout our lives. Why does this matter?? Our music preferences tell what we were doing as teens.
Wish I could! However, music preference is highly unique with nature and nurture at play. However, rhythm is also highly tied into the limbic system managing our emotions.
Sorry! Forgot one thing. It’s not necessarily the brain structure, but the neuronal connections and how they behave. There is where our individuality lies.
So 90s/00s alt and punk rock… mixed with a little pop/punk and 90s country. I’m curious what your opinion on that one is. Legit, not trying to poke fun. I promise. There’s a few shadow genres, but those are my “older than dirt soul” music.
It’s really amazing. Mine was Chopin and 90s rap. Preferences can span genres. I was in a classical music family, but I was also an angsty teen. Culture, familial or otherwise, play in. Genetics play in how our neuronal connections are established.
I’d be glad to read some of the research on that topic.
The music I’m currently listening to is not what I listened to as a teenager, but I can see my personal path from A to B. It would be interesting to see a more quantified research on that.
Thanks! I used to work with dementia patients who couldn’t speak. But, they could sing to tunes from their youth. I’m now curious to see where new research has gone. Keep up faith for science!
My late grandpa was a bit like that! He could speak some words, but it was hard for us to understand what he wanted. But especially in his mid-late stage of dementia, he had his tune that he was singing most of the time. It was interesting because he didn’t sing much when he was younger.
That was my great gramma. She was a vaudeville singer in her youth, and as the disease progressed she spoke less and less but kept singing pretty much until she passed. She remembered dozens of old songs, and always wanted to perform for guests.
How about correlation on pedophiles in the music industry and 2 presidents that enjoyed Epstein Island blue & red?? 80's perv music like Every Breath You Take sold as a love song? Correlation to dropping the legal marriage age in Arkansas??
Interesting considering how capitalism infects, trends, manipulates markets. FCC license at local radio station helping artists in the 80's get air time before corporate contracts. That's a confoundment in studies on who is influencing who.
My daughter teaches piano, kenpo karate, & liberal arts degree in history. We're using classical music without words including GOT & House of Dragon composition. Just gave a 70 yr old a lesson on Arvo Part and his Estonia piano not having a playable middle register.That an interdisciplinary trifecta
Beautiful! My 15 year-old son is autistic and a composer of Bossa Nova and polyrhythm Western Asia music. He also loves Shostakovich’s codes he put into his music to rebel against the dictators of his time. Music has no bounds!
I looked it all up and I love this son of yours! We tutor and enjoy the neuro-spicy students. My cousin learned Russian in high school & works in the Dept of Energy. Should totally send her a musical message! TY. You made my day today!
Nostalgia is a type of marketing brain chemistry hack. Been studying boomers growing up. Especially the radical Evangelical foster care family I was in. Amy Grant - not Christian enough. Kenneth Copeland - well funded by Nestle Executive in the family. Things are not as they appear (Sociology)
Just saying it now, if in 30 years I see a KIA commercial with a car ripping around turns to the opening riff of transgender dysphoria blues, I can't promise I'm not going to buy it.
There was a reason Hitler got denied from uni. All the authoritarians are shit when it comes to self expression in general (hence why they lash out in anger so viciously)
It's because the brain matter leaking out of their ears has damaged the aural nervous system. This is made worse by the recto-cranial inversion they suffer.
The music that is catered to them is specifically about division and hating anyone who doesn't fit their narrow view of the world. There is no creativity or fluidity in the design process so invariably it ends up being utter trash.
Not needed, we already know. Creativity is impossible without being open to new cultures and experiences. Bigoted people fear groups they don’t know or understand. Artists are curious and learn from them. Therefore, creativity is the anthesis of fear and bigotry.
no, but the studies correlating brain damage to far right ideology might shed some light on the phenomenon. I just think that when an explanation like shitty people like shitty music exists diving deeper isn't super necessary.
Yes and no? Music shares the same pathways as empathy. Learning music therefore strengthens one’s ability to empathize with others. Take away music training, you get poor taste in music and an inability to empathize.
Empathy is putting oneself in others’ shoes. Incidentally future planning uses that part of the brain, only the other is your future self. Music’s regimented time and requirement for future planning activates the same part of the brain, only more so. Can be seen on fMRI. Music training is critical.
There are lots of studies on physical brain differences in liberal v conservative thinking, moral reasoning etc. Don't know offhand of one specifically about music though. How interested are you?
When art becomes a crime and other national Doctrine of Discovery chorus lines about Eurocentric, white, land owning, wealthy, Christian, men that killed & stole & oppressed others to "found" Turtle Island. Carlin got it correct, far right here didn't want German competition so WWII. 2025 4th Reich
It's the same reason they can "like" Rage Against the Machine but for all the wrong reasons. They're the people who thought Joseph Pulitzer was the hero of "Newsies".
if the obvious comments about doodooheads only allowing more of the same in their ears have been made, that's a question that made me go hmm...
the correlation seems obvious, the causality is likely similar. brain damage has been shown to result in shift towards conservatism...
and brains that can do math and nuance are less conservative. mostly I blame their parents for the lack of early exposure to reading and classical music in early development
If I remember correctly, it directly ties with their inability to grasp art and every medium of creativity in general. There has been a study on this exact phenomenon.
“conservatives desire security, predictability and authority more than liberals do, and liberals are more comfortable with novelty, nuance and complexity”
Not to my knowledge. But at a guess if say being tone deaf is part of it, and their amazing ability to hear what they want to hear no matter what song is playing.
Well, an unscientific study, conducted just now by myself, a non-scientist, finds that their so-called taste in music is nearly equally matched by their taste in political choices, EV's, TV veiwing, and general social standards.
This explanation sounds the most credible to me. Someone who is curious about culture & enjoys music can have some reactionary ideas; but a paranoid who is heavily driven by reactionary thought may actually fear art from the "wrong sort of people."
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To appreciate music or creativity of any form takes a certain intelligence and empathy. From my experience people on the far right aren’t interested in culture or the creative arts - they see them as weak and not conforming to their rigid worldview.
From what I've noticed a lot of them just don't like branching out, exploring things outside of their tiny world bubbles. They probably stick with the music they heard growing up & whatever doesnt have lyrics that challenge them to think.
They’re also lousy humorists and not so great in the sack, but if you’re looking for someone who loves to stick their head in the sand while making an art out of hypocrisy, they’re great at that!!
Have you not been introduced to all the other forms of art they like? If not, sit down and I'll pour some tea about patriotic torture porn, blackface, and using your shitty bookclub to try to dominate society if not the world!
A lot of right-wingers don’t respect or appreciate art/artists tbh. Also art is about expression, emotions, and freedom, three concepts right wingers either struggle with or downright hate.
they don't travel to other places in the world or listen to music that isn't in English. they are fundamentally uncurious and afraid of difference. plus, they have to deny the influence of non-white cultures in music/art bc it undermines white supremacy. also why they hate spicy food.
No but studies have been done to figure out where they get their philosophy. They are afraid. They’re afraid of strangers, afraid of anything new, afraid of change, therefore they have to react to the world as if nothing will ever change.
People with far-right views might prefer simpler, more familiar, and less experimental music due to lower openness to experience, a preference for order, and a tendency toward nationalism in musical themes. However, this is a general trend—there are always exceptions.
We only studies I've seen show that people who believe in far right principles are usually just really really stupid people believing whatever they're told by a charismatic fascist.
Well a few have been started. By the third playing of 'YMCA' most people change their field of study to something more interesting---like Chartered Accountancy.
They are a combination of all the below factions.
Racists
misogynist
Incels
Christian evangelicals
Mental handicapped
Conspiracy theorists
Uneducated
Ultra elite white / politician
Greedy mother fuckers
Traitors
I’m sure I missed a few but the good guys are losing.
I much prefer the far right who stay in their lane listing to terrible propaganda music, verse the ones who ironically shout along to protest music not knowing in bloom was about them
In seriousness, they lack openness to culture and things that might be “new” or even slightly view challenging, so likewise are the music of those they choose to listen to. Shit “artists” make shit music for shit people.
Well, Art is in the eye of the beholder, but research is starting to showing that trauma does trap people in fear based response loops which biochemically narrows the way they view the world.
I lack openness to redneck culture. Fun existence living in Indiana. There are moments though. Wearing my dark Brandon t shirt in Walmart, or my “fuck Trump and fuck you for voting for him” shirt. They all act and talk really tough…just kidding. I have gotten more compliments (3) than complaints (0)
Art is subjective. People tend to hang on to things they like (music is a great example). I’m surprised all the highly educated people with six figure student loan debts for cultural studies that collaborate in this echo chamber don’t get this.
My favorite band is Dire Straits... probably because of the guitar riffs. Not sure if it's a good or bad thing.
But hey, I like Bob Marley so maybe I'm not so bad.
Musical taste is the strangest thing! An early rejection of dire straits from a record label had this written about them.
"Very, very good. But very, very boring. "
The fact Knopfler can't sing...but doesn't have to, as being a world class guitarist and songwriter more than makes up for it.
I wouldn't call it singing but then again, some of those Heavy Metal "singers" don't sing either, it's more like yelling and screeching.
Anyway, to me, speaking about music taste is like discussing the consistency of shit. To each his own.
Comments
Just look at their understanding of a show like The Boys, where they actually think Homelander is the “good guy” and fail to see the shows satire.
"People with far-right politics may have poor taste in music due to rigid cultural views, resistance to diverse influences, and a preference for simplistic, nationalistic themes over artistic complexity."
Never thought of it just being him and the guitar as a thematic point. Now I really want to hear a reply from Holly Humberstone, Massie Peter’s or Lauren Mayberry.
Not sure it's any more complicated than that
You can have sophisticated nazis, I recommend "Imperium" (with Daniel Radcliffe), it has a really good scene about that
Though crass idiots tend to both have shit taste AND vote far-right so it's more of a "correlation, not causation" thing
Short: I think part of US F-R shit taste is necessary for PR reasons
So…moot point
🫤
Far right weirdos cant do this, so they have no taste and cant understand the appeal of art that isnt "functional" to them. Its also why they glaze NFTs so hard. Its (art?) that "has a purpose"
🤔😆
But then their left side must be smaller also, less rationality.
Which means they must be thinking with their butts
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8307752/
Conservatives push against those things by definition.
The music I’m currently listening to is not what I listened to as a teenager, but I can see my personal path from A to B. It would be interesting to see a more quantified research on that.
I regret that no one recorded her singing.
There was a reason Hitler got denied from uni. All the authoritarians are shit when it comes to self expression in general (hence why they lash out in anger so viciously)
This is also why conservative "comedy" is uniquely awful.
the correlation seems obvious, the causality is likely similar. brain damage has been shown to result in shift towards conservatism...
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/conservative-and-liberal-brains-might-have-some-real-differences/
Specifically it is derivative drivel because they do not have what it takes to allow impression, which an artist synthesizes into original art.
It's what's left over after throwing away all the Black, Gay, Female, Latin, and Cross-dressing artists.
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If you've got shitty politics, you've likely got shitty music taste.
MC EH?
Bob Altemeyer studied right wing authoritarian personality.
I think it's the MAGA movement. See red hat? That's bad taste in human form. Q.E.D.
People with far-right views might prefer simpler, more familiar, and less experimental music due to lower openness to experience, a preference for order, and a tendency toward nationalism in musical themes. However, this is a general trend—there are always exceptions.
I'm sure you could Google it.
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/conservative-and-liberal-brains-might-have-some-real-differences/
Racists
misogynist
Incels
Christian evangelicals
Mental handicapped
Conspiracy theorists
Uneducated
Ultra elite white / politician
Greedy mother fuckers
Traitors
I’m sure I missed a few but the good guys are losing.
https://www.med.wisc.edu/news/psychopaths-brains-differences-structure-function/
In seriousness, they lack openness to culture and things that might be “new” or even slightly view challenging, so likewise are the music of those they choose to listen to. Shit “artists” make shit music for shit people.
Fashion, music, comedy, literature, poetry, art, movies
They suck at all of them.
Just look how young Tories dress?
Remember Paul Ryan espousing how much he loves Rage Against The Machine.
But hey, I like Bob Marley so maybe I'm not so bad.
"Very, very good. But very, very boring. "
The fact Knopfler can't sing...but doesn't have to, as being a world class guitarist and songwriter more than makes up for it.
Anyway, to me, speaking about music taste is like discussing the consistency of shit. To each his own.