Personally, I find it kind of ironic, that the music that men and women listen to at the ages of 13 to 16 are the most influential on later music preferences. I initially felt like the music that music that would be listened to in later stages of life would have more of an impact on music preference, however with this article, and like the New York Times article it is evident that younger ages set the bases for your music preference.
I also found it interesting that there was numerical evidence to support this idea concerning music taste. For instance, the examples of “Creep” and “Just Like Heaven” showed that they are the 164thfavorite songs among men, and were very popular with women respectively. The time frames corresponded to men at the age of 14 and women at the age of 11. Thinking back to the songs my parents enjoy, I can see how this can be true. They listen to songs that had similar styles and beats while they were adolescents.
Currently, I am an adolescent, and now I can actually see the correlation somewhat. Like when I was younger I fell in love with R&B. Now I listen more to hip-hop and rap, but I still have a sweet spot for R&B. With this being said, I don’t see myself abruptly changing my preference in music to say country or alternative. So I guess in a weird, but logical way, what you listen to as a teen or pre-teen influences what you listen to later.