Music taste is something we talk about incredibly casually. 

We form opinions on style in a heartbeat, and we tend to be drawn to people with a similar style as ourselves. When told about two people you haven’t met, if all you hear about them is that one shares your music tastes and the other doesn’t, you’ll gravitate to the person with a similar musical taste as yourself. 

Now, on the surface, this makes sense. Of course you’re drawn to the people you have something in common with. It happens with just about everything. Clothing style, grades, literature, background, hobbies, and so much more. 

But why is that? Is it because we think they’ll be easier to talk to? Because we think they’ll understand us more than other people? Is it about our comfort zones? Are we afraid of stepping away from what is familiar so much that it guides our friendship choices? Are we afraid of differing opinions? Do we think music is an indicator of what they’re like as a person?

It can be difficult to tell which of these variables, or others, are acting on us when we make quick decisions about people, but let’s stop and explore this for a moment. 

For now, let’s stick with music as our example. 

When you find someone with the same music taste as you, what do you assume about them? This might seem like a silly question, but humor me. 

When I meet people and find out that they listen to, say, The Grey Havens or The Arcadian Wild, I make a few natural assumptions. First, I assume they’re Christians, since both of those bands are Christian, or at least strongly tied to Christian themes. Second, I assume they probably have other things in common with me. Maybe that’s that they read similar books (Christian fiction), or maybe it’s that they tend to think through things in a similar way to me. 

But not all assumptions we make are positive ones. There are probably people you’ve looked down on, maybe just a little, for their choice of music. Now, I don’t mean you sit around thinking “they must be awful to listen to that band/song/genre”. It could just be that you find yourself gravitating away from them when there are other people in the room who you share music taste with.

Now, these assumptions, or rather associations, could be completely wrong for an individual. My best friends, for instance, have very different tastes than I have, tastes that I don’t naturally gravitate to, and they’re both amazing people. But I still make these associations automatically. All of us make assumptions about the people around us based on this kind of thing, even if we don’t realize it. We’re built for inference, and we’re generally quite good at it. 

Why is that? I think it’s because what we listen to really does impact us as people. Perhaps genre only affects bits of personality, but lyrics certainly have power, and we know this instinctively.

Music is like a friend that you hang out with almost constantly. You might listen to music while you do schoolwork, chores, go to bed, eat, drive, or any number of other things. It used to be that people could only listen to what live music was provided, but now we have these lovely devices that play whatever music we want all around us, and it’s given us a world of choices. 

The Bible tells us over and over to choose our friends wisely in places like 1 Corinthians 15:33, which says “Do not be misled: “Bad company corrupts good character.”” and Proverbs 12:26, which tells us that “The righteous choose their friends carefully, but the way of the wicked leads them astray.”

You’ve probably noticed that people rub off on each other. We tend to talk and think like the people we spend our time with. 

But who or what is whispering in your ear throughout the day? Music. Now, a foolish acquaintance among wise friends is one thing, but don’t let that kind of acquaintance become your best friend. It will rub off on you, and you most likely won’t notice it. At least, not at first. 

And knowing a friend has habits you wouldn’t like to pick up often isn’t enough to stop you from picking them up anyway. Don’t assume that you’re the exception who can stay uncorrupted by ungodly music—-that’s a very dangerous train of thought, and often while you’re thinking about not being derailed, you’re taken to the wrong destination.

So next time you pull up Spotify or Apple Music, think before you push play. Is this music pushing you closer to God, teaching you valuable lessons and whispering truth into your mind, or is it lying to you and teaching you bad morals? Is this music a wise friend, or a foolish one?

Choose accordingly.