Are musicians more narcissistic?

Carrying on from previous themes surrounding the traits and quirks of popular musicians, in this blog I’ll be continuing to explore this nurture vs nature debate. In the mid 90’s researchers explored the personality characteristics of 171 rock musicians and suggested an increased tendency towards neurotic and obstinate behaviour (acting up, pushing boundaries), when compared to classical musicians.

In general, they found musicians to be more extroverted and arrogant compared to population norms (normal people), as well as being more neurotic! In my view this ‘neuroticism’ could prompt loads of anxiety or alternatively be utilised for a more energetic performance as a result of the flooding adrenalin racing through the veins.

In a more recent study, the personalities of 100 rock and popular musicians’ were explored in an attempt to try and create a generalised profile of a rock musician. Musicians were found to harbour low levels of conscientiousness and agreeableness (I assume that they were slightly more moody) and again had higher levels of neuroticism alongside being open to new experiences. These traits did vary between different instrumentalists, length of time in the industry and levels of success and musicianship.

In a third study, researchers compared narcissistic traits of popular, classical and non-musicians, the popular musicians were found to be more extrovert and grandiose when compared to the classical musicians or non-musicians. These traits were linked to these popular musicians assumed use of soft drugs and alcohol use. The research also found that musicians within both demographics generally displayed a greater level of narcissism when compared to normal people (non-musicians).

I found this particularly interesting as I feel that to get up on stage, perform and project ourselves forward we do have to have a healthy sense of self or narcissistic traits to step up in the first place. In the modern world of TikTok, the word narcissistic has many reductionistic and binary connotations. I think all performing musicians have to be slightly grandiose (in a healthy and moderate sense), it’s when it goes a little too far that problems can creep in!

As a caveat for this research, don’t forget, these studies all used variations on questionnaires to determine potential personality traits so they do need to be taken with a pinch of psychological salt! Despite all of these studies we are still in the infancy of research within the complex area of popular musicians.