Does Music shape your personality?

Does listening to a certain type of music change your personality, peer group etc. Does listening to rock make you a rocker/greebo/grunger (whatever you call them) for example.

No, but people like to make it shape who they are. It's stupid.

I think music effects people on a very personal level, but I believe people are also drawn to the types of music that are already relevant to their personalitiesl.

Therefore, the type of music you listen to does not define you, the type of music you LOVE indicates what type of personality you have and what values you hold dear, in my opinion.

For instance, I'm an emo, thoughtful, depressive, and rebelious person, so I listen to Death Cab, Rilo Kiley, Brand New, The Killers, Modest Mouse, Fall Out Boy, Stars, and Arctic Monkeys. Among others. I really listen to everything though, so maybe I'm a bad example.

The music you love does show a lot about you, and musical fads do coin generational thought. For instance, indie rock would be the up and coming.

emo isn't even a type of music. what the hell is emo? your an example of what i was saying. people tend to listen to the "in" type of music and build their lives around it. It makes people shape who they are. It is all just ignorance.

rilo kiley is not emo...i like rilo kiley. i am nothing like the definition for an "emo".

your only thinking of the highschool scenes. all those kids running around trying to keep the "hippie" seen alive by doing drugs, acting like they want peace, acting like they are vegetarians, and acting like they care about nature.

or the "goth" and what not. it's all a bunch of bs.

I didnt say Rilo Kiley was emo, in fact, she is not, hell, neither is Arctic Monkeys.

I listed many things, one of them being thoughtful, and that Rilo Kiley is. Death Cab is emo, that was one of the corresponding bands.

Emo is a type of music. It is basically softcore punk rock, or punk rock injected with estrogen. Something Corporate is a perfect example. So is Death Cab for Cutie, some Fall Out Boy, and Brand New, most of which were bands I named.

Most poets are very emo. I dont see why so many people hate the movement, especially on this site.

The genre of music that is characterized as "emo" is unofficial. You wont find, in most music stores, an emo section, but people KNOW what it is that listen to it. It's a new thing, so at this point you can only find it in urban dictionary. It's not an actually defined concept yet.

And emo has nothing, nada, to do with the highschool hippie scene. The self mutilating scene, sure.

Goth, indie rock, and emo are all very different. If you knew anything of the actual cultures behind them you wouldnt group them together.

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=emo

"Emo" is not short for "Emotional." "Emo" does not mean Taking Back Sunday and Dashboard Confessional, despite what MTV has lead you to believe in the last few years. "Emo" is not sidebangs, tight pants, and male vocalists who sing like little girls about their failed relationships. "Emo" is not the use of diluted, meaningless metaphors and similes such as "My arms are like pinecones," and most definitely is not the rampant use of words such as "autumn," "heart," "knife," "bleeding," "leaves," and "razorblade."

I just thought I'd clear that up after all of these "definitions" in which I have encountered an unbelievable amount of people who try to pass off their blatantly false pretenses as fact, and are slowly infecting others with their high-horse, holier-than-thou bullshit. Because honestly, with your ridiculous definitions, Beethoven, George Gershwin, and Britney Spears are/was "emo bands."

Now, onto the real definition.

In the early 90s there was a movement in the hardcore genre that came to be known as "Emotive Hardcore," spearheaded by Rites Of Spring. Harder-core-than-thou kids, who swore by Dischord Records a la Minor Threat, actually coined the term "Emo" as something of a put-down for the kids who really liked Rites Of Spring, Indian Summer and this new wave of "Emotive" Hardcore bands. That's right, "Emo" was once not something kids called themselves. The field exploded outwards from there - Level-Plane Records has always been the most famous Emo label. Acts like Yaphet Kotto, I Hate Myself, Saetia, Hot Cross, A Day In Black And White, Funeral Diner, I Would Set Myself On Fire For You, You And I, and hosts of others came in the next decade. Most emo bands have since broken up, but there's still the occasional hold-out (again, the majority of Level-Plane Records' roster has been a procession of emo acts). Like most DIY hardcore/punk of the time, a majority found its way onto vinyl and not much else. Some people consider bands like Fugazi, and later Sunny Day Real Estate, a progression of emo, but personally, I don't quite follow that philosophy.

Often, more recently, this gets intertwined with post-hardcore, and understandably so - that's nothing to make an issue of, since well shit, at least it's close.

Since the late 90s, though, bands have been emerging in the vein of Taking Back Sunday, Dashboard Confessional, and the thousands of their clones. As far as I can tell, some lazy journalist somewhere, writing an article about them, decided "Well, fuck, no one knows what emo is anyways, so I'll call these bands "emo" - sounds more appealing than bubblegum pop rock..." and the spiral continued downwards into the current amalgomation of bands MTV has told everyone is "emo."

Somehow, people decided that "emo" meant "emotional," which is obviously bullshit, as 99% of bands make music to illicit emotion, which would make "emotional" a completely all-encompassing genre from classical to opera to pop to rap.

Hope that helps.
Taking Back Sunday, Senses Fail, and My Chemical Romance falls under the "horrible pop rock" genre, not the emo genre.

Rites of Spring is emo."

There are the misconceptions, and then there is the culture.

Music is influential and to me it can help my mood and sometimes worsen it. It doesn't change my personality though. I don't think you can define someone's personality by the music they listen to cos that is just stereotyping. I listen to classical music as well as hard rock, metal and some thrash, plus much much more - what does that say about me? It says : I listen to classical music as well as hard rock, metal and some thrash... I like all sorts of music, my mind is open to any kinds of music.

rilo kiley is a band...not just one person.

"Most poets are very emo. I dont see why so many people hate the movement, especially on this site"

^ that is crap. they try to be good poets. haha and exactly what do the "emo" people have in mind to do...what are they trying to accomplish. it is not a movement. it is just a bunch of stupid teens who dress all artsy and listen to crappy music.

I kissed a drunk girl
I kissed a drunk girl, yes I did
Kissed a drunk girl on the lips
I let my guard down
How could I have been so dumb?
Her eyes were open
I know I am not the one
I know I am not the one
I know I am not the one

I kissed a drunk girl
Why do I do these things I do to myself?
I kissed a drunk girl
And now I'm sure I could have been anybody else

I went to her house
And everybody there was gone
Her little cousin just passed out on the lawn
We walked to my car
She mouthed "Is everything ok?"
She leaned in slowly
So now I can say

I kissed a drunk girl
Why do I do these things I do to myself?
I kissed a drunk girl
And now I'm sure I could have been anybody else

I pulled away
I didn't think it would be right
I said "Let's save this for another night"
And she said "No, no, no I know that everything's gonna be just fine"
How could I do this when I want her to be all mine?

I kissed a drunk girl
Why do I do these things I do to myself?
I kissed a drunk girl
And now I'm sure I could have been anybody else

I know you don't care about me
I'm sure when all is said and done
And I go home feeling lonely
You will have had your fun
Do you even remember?

I kissed a drunk girl
Why do I do these things I do to myself?
I kissed a drunk girl
And now I'm sure I could have been anybody else
-something corporate-

tell me those lyrics are good....

I'm aware Rilo Kiley is a band, not a person, but primarily it's one female singer.

The singer of Something Corporate, Andrew McMahon, was diagnosed with leukemia, would that make you write emotional lyrics pertaining to the value of life? His side project, Jack's Mannequin, which features Tommy Lee on drums btw, is much better than Something Corporate, and not all of SC's lyrics are good by any means, but the actual MUSIC is really good. It's in the genre of Piano Rock, and Andrew is the one who plays that on all his CD's too.

You also picked the WORST possible song to highlight Something Corporate as a band, as most of their songs have nothing to do with kissing drunk girls but are more about the value and enjoying life, learning from it, than anything else.

Your perception of "emo" only proves you know no true emo kids. The culture of "emo," the one that first came out, was very different from what it has evolved to become in pop culture today. Now, teen angst is referred to as "emo," when that's not what it really is. It was a name for kids who listened to a more emotional form of punk music, back when punk was grungy, not pop. You know, before Sum 41.

Many teen poets truly are emotional people, they dont write because they're good poets, they write because they have no other outlet. That's why this site is flooded with shitty poetry, and these kids may be deemed by MTV as "emo," or by people who misunderstand the root of the word, but that's not what they are. They're teenagers, going through the same things teenagers have been going through for decades, but without the coining phrase, so call it what you wish, but you're simply wrong. You're from middle America, "emo" culture is a West Coast thing. Of course you dont know any true emo's. They're all in Seattle.

And good poetry is in the eye of the beholder. Some may think your work is great, and some may say it's dripping in mediocrity, just like anyones opinion about a band. Bands arent just about the lyrics, they're about the music and compilation as a whole.

people call themselves and label themselves emo. it's pathetic.

Poseur emo, yes, pathetic.

It's just a label for teen angst. The word has morphed from its original definition, and it has drowned in popular culture.