Party rocking: Exploring the relationship between music preference, partisanship, and political attitudes

Music and politics have been interconnected for centuries, and it is difficult to explain a political event without mentioning the subsequent music creation and vice versa; examples include anti-war music during the Korean and Vietnam Wars, a shift to country music with patriotic undertones after 9/11, and so on (Kay, 2017). Preliminary research suggests that there could be a connection between political ideologies and liking genres of music, but it is relatively outdated (Fox and Williams 1974). There is research surrounding how political polarization contributes to opposing attitudes and preferences, and how music has different origins and patterns, but there is no concrete knowledge of a direct relationship between political polarization and musical genres that have stark sonic differences. Using an original survey, this project seeks to identify the relationship between partisanship and music preferences and what effect, if any, said relationship has on political attitudes.