Listening to music can help the brain adapt, modify, and change throughout life, which supports a healthy brain and slows brain ageing. However, this works best when the music lines up with your taste in music. The same can be said of people with dementia - understanding their music taste can help you use music as a tool to support their brain health.
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So, what is your music taste? This has been a point of conversation for many years and streaming services claim their algorithms have figured out your music taste. Let’s break it down and see what your music taste is, so you can better care for your loved ones.
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Your DNA is very similar to my DNA, in fact, 99.9% the same - it is what makes us human. If we were to write down all the bits of our DNA information it would cover 262,000 pages or 175 books. The 0.1% difference between you and I would be covered by just 500 pages and would cover things like eye colour, height, predisposition to certain diseases and genetic elements of your personality.
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While that 0.1% might seem insignificant, it is enough to make every single human being on this plant singular. There is no exact copy of you anywhere in the world (or, is there?).
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The same can be said for our music taste. While you and I might enjoy a lot of the same songs or styles of music, it is the outliers we enjoy that define our taste. These outliers have to do with our personal past life experiences from the day we are born to today. There is no other person that has experienced exactly the same as what you have, or felt the emotions you felt when living these experiences - all music we listen to provokes an emotional reaction in us, and for everyone that is different.
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Our life and experiences define our taste, which makes it inherently special. Yes, there are some quick and dirty ways to establish a baseline of what you might enjoy, but without understanding you and your life, it would be very hard for me to pin down your exact music taste.
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Algorithmic (computer) systems that process the listening habits of millions of people are very good at understanding your general taste, but they are not designed to understand your individual taste.
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When it comes to using music as a therapy, it is precisely the outliers that are most beneficial for us.
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If you want to better understand your own music taste, have a think about songs that make you feel relaxed, or specific songs that make you feel good, or energised. Take some time to think about the music you heard growing up. Either music your parents played, or songs that were popular when you first fell in love, or went to high school, etc. Play these songs - you might be surprised at how they will make you feel! You can do the same practice with the people you care for. Then, you can use that music as a tool to help give them a music workout!