The Psychology Of Music, Identity, and Marketing

Hey guys!

Get ready for a full-on, in-depth researched blog, almost like a shorter version of a research paper for school.

You know I have to give the backstory on how I got this crazy idea on a Friday at 7:30 AM while driving to work. 'So Far So Fake' by Pierce the Veil, from their 'The Jaws of Life' album. I was listening to it, actually, I was screaming the lyrics, fully engaged like I was front row at their concert. My heart was thumping in my chest, I was head bobbing like there was no tomorrow, my arms, well arm, was flailing around. You would've thought I was at an 80s rock concert. I'm sure the cars next to me in traffic thought I was having a grand mal seizure. As people my age would say, I was absolutely vibing out.

So before I get into all of the nerdy aspects of psychology and marketing and academics, I'm about to talk about. Plain and simple, there's a psychological theory, the Empathizing-Systemizing theory developed by Simon Baron-Cohen in 2002, that divides people into three categories. Get familiar with them because I will be using them a lot later on.

Type E

Type S

Type B

This little diagram thing that I'm about to give you probably will make no sense, but it will by the end.

Type E → Empathy over (>) Sympathy

Type S → Sympathy over (>) Empathy

Type B → Balanced

So without further ado, get ready for the most intelligent I am probably ever going to sound.

The Psychology of Music, Identity & Marketing

Music preferences reflect lifestyle and identity traits that marketers can use to predict which marketing strategies, such as influencer marketing, social media ads, or experiential campaigns, or even further, fonts, colour, and feeling, are most effective for different consumer groups.

How Empathizing vs. Systemizing Shapes Taste — and What That Means for Brands

Music feels personal. It feels emotional. Instinctive. Private. But what if your Spotify Wrapped revealed more than your mood this year? What if it revealed how you think, how you make decisions and how you respond to marketing? Research in psychology, branding, and cognitive science suggests that music preference is not random. It reflects personality, traits, identity, formation, emotional regulation patterns, and even cognitive style. And for markers? That insight is not only powerful, but it is a gold mine. Because if music reflects how someone processes emotions and structures. It can predict how they respond to branding, messaging, visuals, and buying triggers.

The Role of Music in Branding

Music is not an aesthetic decoration. It's identity reinforcement. Brands use music to strengthen brand alliance, increase memory recall, create emotional associations, and signal target audience alignment. Luxury brands often use orchestral music to signal sophistication. Youth brands lean into contemporary, energetic, trending pop tracks. Catchy jingles improve recall because of rhythm, which enhances memory encoding. Music becomes a shortcut to perception and sales.

Product Placement & Cognitive Processing

Research on product placement and music videos shows that individual factors and execution stimulus affect brand recall and recognition, brand choice has the strongest correlation with purchase attention, and music videos are especially effective platforms for Generation Y, 1981–1996. The process model is clear: exposure, recall, recognition, choice, and purchase intentions. Music primes the brain, emotionally or structurally, before the brand message even lands. If music and music video aligns with cognitive styles, the brand resonates with strengths. You would not see a pack of Jack Link's Teriyaki beef jerky in the back of Sabrina Carpenter's 'Manchild' music video because that is not her or Jack Link's target audience… At all. Just like you would not see a Rare Beauty product in Metallica's music video 'Enter Sandman.' Let's ignore the fact that Rare Beauty did not exist at this time, but you would not see it because Metallica's music isn't aimed at young females, it would be the opposite of what and who they are trying to attract and sell to.

Emotional Regulation & Mental Health

Music preferences also connect to emotional regulation. Studies show that preferences also connect to emotional regulation. Studies suggest individuals use specific genres to manage stress, process sadness, elevate their mood, and/or reinforce their identity. Adolescents often gravitate towards intense, fun, or emotionally filled music. Adults move towards contemporary styles, whereas older generations lean towards sophisticated genres. Music evolves within identity, and identity evolves with experience.

Music Preference as Identity Signalling

Music preferences often feel subconscious, which sounds stimulates my brain? Which rhythm makes me move? Which voice feels comforting or powerful? Which beats make my heart pump and get me excited? Which songs feel like me? You are not thinking about that when you grab your phone and plug in your CarPlay. You're probably thinking, "shit, I'm gonna be late for work, but I can't go until my Bluetooth connects." Research shows music taste does more than reflect mood, it reflects personality and reinforces identity. A large-scale study from Heriot-Watt University surveyed over 36,000 participants and found consistent links between genre, preferences and personality traits:

-Pop Listeners → Extroverted, Conventional

-Rap Listeners → Outgoing

-Rock/Indie Listeners → Creative, introverted

-Jazz/Blues Listeners → Emotionally stable, Creative, Extroverted

Well, not absolutely universal, the patterns are strong. Music becomes a mirror. But it also becomes reinforcement. We often choose music that reflects how we see ourselves, or how we want to be perceived. Someone who identifies as rebellious make gravitate towards heavy metal, punk rock, or loud, aggressive, meaningful music. Someone who sees themselves as thoughtful may lean towards Indie, folk, jazz, or the blues. You could also look at it from a political side. Someone who is a strong right-winger may publicly declare their hatred for Taylor Swift, but if you open their bedroom door, they might be bumping to some old Taylor Swift behind closed doors. They just might not want to be associated with her tabloid-filled drama or her political views. You don't even have to be chronically online, you can see the huge uproar that Nicki Minaj publicly declaring her support for Trump has caused on the left side. They don't want to be associated with the alleged allegations and the alleged harm Trump has caused to the US. Music is identity construction in motion. It can go one step further than music, and go back to the artist aswell.

The Empathizing-Systemizing (E-S) Theory

Now, to go deeper with everything just stated above, we can look at the empathizing systemizing theory developed by Simon Baron-Cohen in 2002. This theory suggests that people fall into two primary cognitive dimensions, but some fall into a third. Empathizing, E, or as referred to previously, Type E, these are the people who drive to understand emotions and respond appropriately. Systemizing, S, or as previously referred to as Type S, these individuals have the drive to analyze systems and understand rules, patterns, and structures. Both traits exist on a spectrum, most people are mixed up to a certain point. However, individuals mostly tend to lean to one side. But there is the third dimension. Balanced, B, Type B, this person has an equal drive to empathize and systemize. This means that the individual's ability to understand people and their capacity to analyze their built systems are roughly balanced. This theory was later extended into discussions around the "extreme male brain" model of autism, though for branding and marketing purposes, what matters is that the different cognitive styles process the world differently, and music preferences that reflect that. I did a version of the E-S theory test, and I personally scored 22 on empathizing and 35 on systemizing. If you want to try your own version, click here.

How Cognitive Style Shapes Music Taste

Research shows that people with high empathizer, prefer mellow, emotional, and/or low arousal music. On the other side, people who are high systemizers prefer intense, complex, and/or high-arousal music. For the purpose of simplicity for the empathizer, we will say Type E, and for the systemizer, we will say Type S, following the same pattern for balanced individuals.

Type E individuals are emotionally, intuitively, and rationally aware. They tend to value storytelling, vulnerability, emotional depth, and lyrics that mirror their experiences, they don't just hear music, they feel the music. In this case, they often prefer genres such as indie folk, R&B, soul, acoustic, alternative pop, and emotional and slower hip-hop. Type E normally listens for lyrics that they can relate to emotionally, buildups, vocal tones, and songs that regulate their mood.

Type S individuals are analytic, structured, and pattern-oriented. They tend to value production quality, sonic, layering, rhythmic complexity, and technical mastery. They don't just feel music, they analyze it. The genres that they tend to lean towards are EDM, progressive rock, instrumental, classical, techno, and jazz fusions. Whereas Type S individuals listen for beat structures, sound, design, transitions, tempo, shifts, and engineering.

Now we can't forget about Type B. Type B is the balanced brain where they are both a balance of an empathizer and a systemizer. Type B individuals crave emotional storytelling and strong production. This is where the individual strives to find music that blends both dimensions. They strive for depth and design, emotional and engineering. Type B individuals can be found listening to a wide variety of genres, but only liking or tolerating a few songs from each album, artist, or genre.

What This Means for Brands and Entrepreneurs

This is where all the theories and statistics come together. Music has never just been entertainment. It has always been evidence. The rhymes we replay in our heads, the lyrics we memorize, the sound that feels like home, they are reflections of how we process the world. Some people are wired towards emotion, story, and human depths, others are wired towards structure, clarity, and patterns. And marketing, at its core, is communication aligned with cognition. If you lead with systems when your audience needs emotional safety, you'll create resistance. If you lead with emotion when your audience is seeking structure and scale, you create confusion. Overwhelmed entrepreneurs need residence before they need a roadmap. Operators seeking growth need frameworks before they need inspiration. The brands that scale understand both. Emotion builds attraction. Structure converts. Systems sustained. Loyalty is relational. Music preference isn't just taste, it's cognitive architecture. When you stop understanding how your audience thinks, not just what they buy, marketing stops seeing a performance, and it becomes precision.