Ongoing History Daily: A study of people with terrible taste in music

You probably know someone who has terrible taste in music. What’s behind that?

According to a recent study by researchers at MIT, the answer seems to relate more to nurture than nature. They conducted experiments with and conducted observations of various indigenous tribes around the world, especially ones with unusual musical traditions. They noticed that the members of these communities were taught that sounds we consider grating and dissonant were acceptable and beautiful.

The conclusion from all these studies is that the musical sounds we hear—melodies, harmonies, chords, and so on—are learned and that biology is not a factor. It’s all about the environment in which a person is raised.

In other words, if you have a friend who has terrible musical taste, you can probably blame their parents.