Does listening to Lil Wayne make you dumb?

If you're a Kanye fan you're probably smarter than a Ludacris fan who is smarter than a Lil Wayne fan who is dumber than, well, everyone. But you're not as smart as a Beatles fan who is not as smart as a…Counting Crows fan? Wait…what? That can't be right.


This is according to a not very scientific but amusing nonetheless study by geek man and Caltech student Virgil Griffith, who is mildly famous for his Wikiscanner (is it just me or does that sound a little dirty?). The study correlates musical preference with SAT scores, which may or may not accurately reflect intelligence.

The highest scoring students favoured the works of Classical/Romantic composer Beethoven while the lowest scoring preferred slurring rapper Lil Wayne.

Beyoncé ranked near the bottom and Sufjin Stevens near the top. Somewhere down the middle were Third Eye Blind, Rage Against the Machine, Outkast, Tool and the Grateful Dead.

Virgil did a similar study with books and found Nabakov's Lolita was the favourite of smarties while the not so bright enjoyed the work of a woman named Zane who (I'm a little proud to say) I had never heard of but who, according to her website, is a "New York Times Bestselling Author of several titles: Addicted, The Sex Chronicles: Shattering the Myth, Skyscraper, Nervous, Gettin’ Buck Wild: The Sex Chronicles 2, The Sisters of APF, Shame on it All, and The Heat Seekers." Uh huh.


Virg apparently said, according to the Wall Street Journal's Digits blog, “Of course there is the whole correlation is not causation thing, but, I mean, duh.”


The official sites for both studies were unavailable when last I checked but you can see 'em here.

CalTech grad student named Virgil Griffith has conducted an interesting (albeit somewhat unscientific) study relating music preferences with SAT scores. While SAT scores are criticized for not accurately determining intelligence, the results show that the “smartest” students’ favorite musician is Beethoven, with an average SAT score of 1371, and at the other end of the spectrum is Lil’ Wayne, with an average score of 889.

Other bands at the top of the scale are Counting Crows, Radiohead, and Sufjan Stevens. Check out the full image of the results after the jump:

Surprisingly, no style of music stands out above the rest, but rather most bands fit within the 1000 to 1150 score range. Another question is whether music can be legitimately associated with smarts.

Does intelligence choose the band? Or does music define how smart we become? Where do your favorite bands appear? Do you think that music can make you dumb?

This is a ver very interesting study! I never heard of such a thing..but as with society I expect people who listen to Beethoven to be "smarter" and people that listen to jazz to be more "stylish and soulful" and people that listen to rock to be more "against the world". I DO expect people who listen to most of todays rap to be less insightful about anything special in the world to be honest.


With that said...i think I like all 3 of Lil Waynes Rock tunes. Amazing Girl, Prom Queen and Hot Revolver are so much different than todays rap. It's like he's having a Kanye moment. Amazing Girl has all these weird vocal effects with auto tune and the uptempo beat with live instruments ass so much depth. Other entertainers need to take note of Puffy, Kanye and Waynes styles. They are branching out...growing.
I really do appreciate what they are doing..and not being so scared.

i guess lil wayne did not make me dumb and i got a perfect score on my sat's.and i studied listening to him

no princey?

punkofthemonth said:

i guess lil wayne did not make me dumb and i got a perfect score on my sat's.and i studied listening to him

In my opinion, I believe these studies should be more personality oriented than intelligence. My daughter likes Lil Wayne, and she's a 'A' student at middle school. I don't care for him nor Ludacris because I can't figure out what they're saying and they're not my cup of tea. I am more into pop, easy listening and jazz music, but I left college in 2006, didn't graduate yet with a 4.0 average. My grades were lower than that over 20 years ago because of distractions in life, and music didn't play a part in it. To add, you would be amazed that there are such young men and women out there who are Lil Wayne fans, and pulling a 'A' average in school.
[Edited 3/8/09 13:13pm]

It has to.

It has to.

RodeoSchro said:

That is an incomplete sentence. Do you listen to Lil Wayne?

no princey?

angel345 said:

That's such a classic example of the generational gap. I know my time is coming up too where eventually I'll be saying the EXACT same thing!

RodeoSchro said:

That is an incomplete sentence. Do you listen to Lil Wayne?

punkofthemonth said:

I take issue with this study, which doesn't mention Prince, Michael Jackson or Madonna.

eaglebear4839 said:

For real, the most intelligent people on Earth, except for those Madonna types. They're merely tolerated.

Marrk said:

I don't know about Prince's IQ, but though he seems to be very intelligent, I read that MJ's and Madonna's IQ is pretty high.