After taking part in the Signal Patterns personality test the other day, I thought I’d try their music test. The personality test was an interesting insight into who I am (turns out I’m intellectual, aesthetic and astute, apparently). While that test revealed a pretty accurate description of who I am, I’m incredibly particular (read: snobby) when it comes to my music taste. So, how did it fare?
The test involves listening to 30 short pieces of music and rating each one based on how much you like it. I’m not sure whether everyone who takes the test gets the same songs or not, but my selection seemed to feature a little too much Country and Metal. Time and time again I found myself rating songs negatively. I think I must have only rated about 4 songs at ‘5′ or above.
Once the test is complete you get a chance to download free MP3s of all the songs featured. Funnily enough, I skipped right past that. All the artists were unknowns (to me at least). Sammy Smash, anyone? No? How about Five Finger Death Punch? I’ve never heard of them either, but that’s a fantastic name. They’ve understandably gone for unsigned acts (have you seen the licensing costs for signed acts?) but that’s not a problem – the clips accurately illustrate particular genres. Had there been any music at all that I actually liked then the opportunity to dowload it would have been welcome.
Then, it’s on to the results. Results are shown as a graphic equaliser which revealed that the characteristics I like the best are Loud, Electrical, Distorted and Percussive. That’s partly true, although regular plays on my iPod such as Joanna Newsom and Belle and Sebastian may have something to say about their music being described in those terms!
While the personality test is pretty much fully formed, the music test still needs a lot of work. Had some electronic music, for example, come up in my selection of clips my results may have been very different. Still, Signal Patterns are still in private beta so they still have time to perfect the test. Click below if you want to peruse my results…
