Yahoo – According to a recent study, Lil Wayne fans are as dumb as a rock. If you enjoy Beyonce and T.I., you’re not too far behind. If you listen to Beethoven, you’re practically a genius.
Data for the study was gathered from Facebook. The study’s author found kids from different colleges across the US, and compared their favorite music to the average SAT scores from those schools. According to the results, Lil Wayne fans had the lowest SAT score at 876, giving his fans the dreaded title of “dumbest fans,” while fans bands like Radiohead, Counting Crows and singer Sufjan Stevens ranked in the 1200s. Fans of Beethoven ranked the highest at 1376. A perfect SAT score is 1600.
The study called Musicthatmakesyoudumb [sic] was conducted by famous American hacker Virgil Griffith, a 2007 University of Alabama graduate, who gives lectures at hacker conferences all across the Nation. A previous study by Griffith called Booksthatmakeyoudumb, listed “The Holy Bible” as one of the books read most often by individuals with low SAT scores, and “Lolita” as well as “100 Years of Solitude” on the highest end of the scale. The study’s popularity with his peers inspired Griffith to find out which bands and genres of music were popular with people with certain SAT scores.
Much like Griffith’s previous study Booksthatmakeyoudumb, which listed “The Holy Bible” as the one of the books read by those with low SAT scores, Gospel was the dumbest music genre with an average SAT score of 916. Closely following Gospel music is Hip Hop and Jazz. Despite the high number of smarties who listen to Beethoven, classical music rated low, at a dim 976. Ironically, techno was the highest rated genre at 1056. In this study, most Individual groups rated much higher than genres.
Many people are outraged by this study, calling it judgmental, ignorant and racist, despite Griffith’s attempt at gathering a good cross-section of America . When this study made its way to TMZ, straight A students and college graduates who scored high on their SATs came out of the woodwork to show their love for Lil Wayne. Most people seemed to despise the message of generalization.
I can see how some artists are more cerebral than others. I only know one Lil Wayne fan, and can honestly say she is a complete rock who can’t spell or put together a complete, intelligent thought to save her life, but that doesn’t mean I lump all of his fans in a similar “challenged” category. Not all of Rufus Wainwright’s fans are gay. Not all fans of emo groups wear black and want to kill themselves. Many people who are into classical music and play classical instruments love Jay Z and Eminembecause their songs have unique rhythms and flows that come off as fresh and fun to those who study classical.
The big lesson here? Although generalization is dangerous, facts are facts, and averages are just that. No matter what the averages are, you will find Lil Wayne fans spanning the entire SAT score spectrum.
Sources:
http://thegrip.wordpress.com/2009/02/26/sat-scores-vs-music-you-listen-to
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virgil_Griffith
http://voices.yahoo.com/new-study-says-if-listen-lil-wayne-re-stupid-2799666.html?cat=33
Guessing that this guy believes that good test taking is an indication of intelligence. I wish he had don’t more research. Also, on the Bible, considering that its probably the most widely read book in all human history, that the message of its premise is that all are welcome to take part regardless of class, education , etc (so there is no status attached to reading it), there would be great appeal to a wide spectrum of individuals. The mean score would probably be impacted.
Also, in many cases, people often learn how to read by reading the bible (because its considered by most to be the most important text that one can read). If that were the case for Chaucer the same conclusion would be reached…. That Chaucer is for dummies.
An excellent example of what I always say, never confuse correlation with causaation. I could ask any ten African Americans the same thing about fried chicken and come to the conclusion that we all like fried chicken. I could ask any ten white people the same about mac and cheese and get the same response. By splitting the groups into different numbers of each, I could prove that the Russian Mob killed JFK.