Musical tastes reflect our unique values and experiences, our relationships
with others, and the places where we live. But as each of these things changes,
do our tastes also change to reflect the present, or remain fixed, reflecting
our past? Here, we investigate how where a person lives shapes their musical
preferences, using geographic relocation to construct quasi-natural experiments
that measure short- and long-term effects. Analyzing comprehensive data on over
16 million users on Spotify, we show that relocation within the United States
has only a small impact on individuals' tastes, which remain more similar to
those of their past environments. We then show that the age gap between a
person and the music they consume indicates that adolescence, and likely their
environment during these years, shapes their lifelong musical tastes. Our
results demonstrate the robustness of individuals' musical identity, and shed
new light on the development of preferences.Comment: Accepted to be published at ICWSM'1
