Music has always been an important form of communication and it can be found in many different contexts including aesthetical, cultural and emotional forms. In the globalized society of today music can be distributed fast through radio, TV, CD: s and the Internet. For many people consumption of music is an important part of the daily life and it can contribute to shape an individual’s attitudes and personality.

The main purpose of this study is to find out whether there are any differences between men and women’s musical preferences. I will apply an explorative approach using qualitative interviews to describe what causes the differences. My results show that there is a difference between men and women’s musical preferences at least on the surface. Men preferred listening to rock and women favoured pop to a greater extent. These results could be affected by socialisation which refers to common norms in the society describing how women and men should behave. Socialisation can be linked to musical preferences and clearly both sexes are affected by this. It can be problematic to break these norms fearing exclusion from certain social groups. Some factors that effects musical preferences are socialisation, gender and identity.