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Now it's official!

SAT Scores and Music Preferences Correlate!

If you've ever suspected that classical music fans are smart and rap fans are not, you can now find your answer.

Virgil Griffith, a PhD student from the US, decided to check this hypothesis. So what he did (and I can't believe I didn't think of it first), he took average SAT scores (out of 1600, excluding the writing section) for colleges using CollegeBoard, then used Facebook to find out the students' top music preferences for that college. And then he matched the data up and plotted it on a graph, and voila! You've got yourself an answer.

You can check out the graph HERE. And you should, it's awesome.

Here are some of the findings:

• Beethoven fans have, on average, much higher SAT scores than anyone else.
• Fans of rap and hip-hop are in fairly bad shape. Lil Wayne fans are worst off, while Kanye West and Eminem are relatively higher, but still not impressive.
• Pop fans aren't doing too well either. John Mayer is well ahead of Kelly Clarkson and Josh Groban, while Justin Timberlake is far behind.
• Jazz fans are not as smart as you'd think. Sorry Tiffany. But Norah Jones fans are doing really well.
• Alternative fans are doing ok. Radiohead has a lead well over everyone else, while Blink 182 fans are tailing the group. Nirvana and Green Day are somewhere in the middle, while Beck fans are fairly high up.
• Rock fans are extremely spread out, and rock seems to be the clear winner in terms of popularity. Aerosmith and Nickelback fans are at the bottom. Rage Against the Machine and Oasis are in the middle. Fans of the Red Hot Chili Peppers, David Bowie, and Coldplay scored pretty well, but the leaders of the bunch are U2 and Counting Crows. So it's official, I'm a U2 fan, I'm smart.
• In classic rock, Bob Dylan is the winner, with Led Zeppelin and The Beatles up front too. The Doors, The Eagles and Queen are way off.

So how did your favourite band score? Check out Virgil's website and find out!

Yeah, sure, maybe this study isn't completely accurate, but it's pretty good. It can at least give some basis to the idea that yeah, musical preferences and SAT scores (as indicative of intelligence or at least success in school) are actually related. So next time someone laughs at you for liking Bob Dylan or Counting Crows, you'll know that you're smarter.

So, what do you think? Leave a comment!

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