Your Favourite Band Was Probably Locked In by Grade 7… and Honestly, That Tracks

If you’ve ever caught yourself still blasting the same bands you loved as a kid and wondered, “Should I have grown out of this by now?” good news: science says you’re fine.

A new survey suggests most people’s music taste is basically set around age 13, which conveniently lines up with Grade 7. Yes, the same year you were juggling lockers, questionable bangs, and a crush you communicated with exclusively through MSN status messages.

In other words, your musical personality was sealed at the exact moment puberty arrived, and confidence left the chat.

That age also overlaps with another milestone. People say they were first exposed to explicit music at around 12 and a half. So just as songs got a little more rebellious, they also started feeling very personal. Suddenly, music wasn’t just background noise. It was your whole identity, written in Sharpie on a binder.

No wonder those early favourites refuse to let go.

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When it comes to who shaped our music taste the most, friends were the biggest influence by far. If your entire personality once revolved around whatever your cool friend burned onto a CD, this explains a lot.

Radio came in second, followed by movies, which makes sense if your life was forever changed by a soundtrack montage. Surprisingly, parents also played a big role.

Nearly half of the people said their mom or dad influenced what they listened to growing up, whether they meant to or not. TV, concerts, festivals, and siblings rounded out the list.

So if you’re still loyal to the bands you discovered in middle school, you’re not stuck in the past.

You’re just extremely normal… with excellent taste that was locked in sometime between math class and emotional turmoil 🎧