'Indie music fans have low self-esteem'

A new study has concluded that fans of indie music have low self-esteem and little motivation, but generally describe themselves as creative.

Researchers at the Heriot Watt University in Edinburgh asked over 36,000 music fans via Peopleintomusic.com to describe their personalities and matched it with their musical tastes.

As well as the findings on indie fans, they found that fans of rap music thought well of themselves and were extremely outgoing, reports the Independent.

Dance music fans were found to be equally outgoing, but more unfriendly and self-centred.

Fans of rock'n'roll were found to be creative and had high self-esteem, plus were hard-working and at ease with themselves.

Blues fans had similar self-esteem levels to rock fans and were found to be generally outgoing.

However, classical music fans were found to have high self-esteem, but were not outgoing, while reggae fans were found to be creative, outgoing, kind and generous, but not hard-working.

According to Professor Adrian North, who led the study, heavy metal fans and fans of classical music had more similar personalities than might be expected, in particular sharing a "love of the grandiose".

North explained: "Aside from their age difference, they're basically the same kind of person.

"Lots of heavy metal fans will tell you that they also like Wagner, because it's big, loud and brash. There's also a sense of theatre in both heavy rock and classical music, and I suspect that this is what they're really trying to get at when they listen."