Musical tastes and personality type are closely related, according to a study of more than 36,000 people from around the world.

BBC NEWS | Scotland | Music tastes link to personality

It's an interesting theory, and one that will always hold both true and false at the same time. The problem with trying to pin down personality types related to music is that in the age of the internet and mass media we are all more persistently exposed to a multitude of musical styles. Back in the 70s those who liked heavy metal were those who could go somewhere to watch it, and as those venues tended to be the rough type you'd expect from metal music, the people tended to have to follow suit. Today thanks to the internet there are a large bunch of house-wives and bald men head banging along without a hint of a leather jacket or a penchant for sustaining blows to the head. The same is true, though less extreme, of other musical types.

The article lists that Indie music indicates the following about personality:

Low self-esteem, creative, not hard working, not gentle

Now as a keen listener of Indie music I must resent three of the four points; however there are shreds of truth that still apply. Low self-esteem would seem a common one with the often depressing nature of the less mainline indie music - and in moments of low self-esteem I do always seem drawn to the more depressing of my albums (Radiohead's OK Computer being a case in point). Nevertheless I will listen to the same albums when I'm rather more cheery (which I like to think is more of the time) so it doesn't entirely hold up. I'll happily accept the creative stamp, though from observation of the crowds and behaviour at a recent large music festival I'd hasten to add that in numbers destructive is a far more applicable description. I tend to work hard most of the time, but everyone can have lazy days and it is true that on those days I'm more likely listening to Travis than Green Day, but as a general label it is rather unfair - especially as the indie scene spawns by far the largest number of bands these days, and there has to be work there competing in an overcrowded market.

Finally "not gentle", a phrase that rings oddly true after the behaviour of certain individuals at the Leeds Festival. A staple of rock music has always been the mosh pits, and they contain their own sense of etiquette and camaraderie with fellow moshers; if someone falls down they get picked up, if someone is injured everyone stops, when the song finishes people shake hands or lock fists. Unfortunately the new generation of "indie kids" attending festivals haven't grown up with this sense of brotherhood, and once they hit 16 and can go to festivals they seem to be of the opinion that they can act like ass-holes without recourse. Most are comfortably middle class "white boys" and tend to be somewhat scrawny with an over-inflated sense of their own importance.

This was made most prevalent during the last-day performance of Bloc Party, where some lanky idiot and his friends rudely slammed into the back of our small group, wearing ridiculous sunglasses and with hoods covering their stupid hair. The slack-jawed leader of the band of ignorant kidz seemed entirely unaware that his peculiar means of dancing involved consistently elbowing me in the arm and head, and seemed oblivious to my pushing him away. However one lucky feature of this new breed is that whilst they're happy to let their ego show through their rude behaviour they don't actually have anything to back that up - hence when I had had enough and elbowed Lanky in the ribs before turning to confront him he seemed to vanish into the crowd faster than a fox facing a group of men in red coats.

So yeah, not gentle, but not tough either. Digression over.