Don’t you feel like you can tell something about a person’s personality from the music they listen to? People are said to keep humming the music they listened to in their youth forever, so when I ask someone what kind of music they like, I wonder if those songs were favorites from a particularly good time in their life. But there’s a papa (a male supporter) who listens to Vocaloid music that sounds like heavy metal, and I was a little surprised—or maybe even put off. It was puzzling…

I’m a male member, Fullerene! Ah, he sounds like little more than an otaku papa (a male supporter). The reason Vocaloid songs often sound like heavy metal is probably that slower songs can make the artificial quality stand out more, so fast-tempo songs tend to be produced more often. It’s not: “I like heavy metal, so I like Vocaloid too.” It’s more like: “I like otaku-related things, so I like Vocaloid too, and a lot of Vocaloid songs happen to sound like heavy metal.” I’m sure that if you asked him, “Which Vocaloid songs with a ballad-like feel do you like?” he’d be happy to talk about them. Since you described it as “Vocaloid that sounds like heavy metal,” you don’t seem particularly knowledgeable about that area. So the fact that this papa (a male supporter) went out of his way to introduce songs like that made his otaku side stand out even more to me. There are quite a few people like that around me, so I can picture him perfectly. Someone happily talking about the things they love is really quite endearing—sorry if that sounds condescending. Anyway, as you said, the songs someone likes or listens to a lot can tell you quite a bit about them. This papa might be fairly devoted, too. This was a while ago, but I once met someone whose musical tastes were pretty similar to mine, and I thought it would be fun to go to karaoke together. Unfortunately, I was kind of turned down, haha.

Seattle here. Lately, I’ve been listening almost exclusively to ZUTOMAYO, which my daughter recommended to me. I wonder if they count as Vocaloid? I just listened to Secret Garden and LIBERA, which Mac mentioned. I see—beautiful music from around Britain. Nigami 17-sai, which Sakura mentioned, has such a distinctive style. The vocalist is great. Everyone should look them up too. I didn’t realize Kozo Murashita died at 46. Somehow, I’ve already passed that age myself.

I’m Taro, a male member. I do feel like you can get a sense of someone’s personality from the music they like. Movies are probably the same. Though it’s all an illusion. There are certainly a lot of people my age who fit the idea that “people keep humming the music they listened to in their youth forever,” but it doesn’t apply to everyone. People love jumping on these catchy sayings that supposedly capture some universal truth. It’s also a technique used by skilled salespeople. That said, I do think you can get closer to someone’s true personality through the music or movies they like. Instead of asking here, why not go and interview the person directly? I’m sure you’d learn all sorts of interesting things. As an aside, if you mean Vocaloid music that sounds like heavy metal, the important part is the Vocaloid. Heavy-metal fans probably wouldn’t accept Vocaloid, but Vocaloid fans tend to be omnivorous. Middle-aged people who eventually find their way to Vocaloid are, broadly speaking, otaku. In the 2000s they may have been hanging around 2channel, and before that, running forums on NIFTY-Serve through their home computers. You might find people like that creepy, but in a sense they’re simple creatures, which makes them easy horses to ride. How you handle them is up to you. And no, I don’t mean turning them into horse sashimi—ride them. Hee-haw.

Maezawa from the CEO’s office here. Thanks for your question. I also play mostly Showa-era songs at work, so people sometimes tell me I’m “way too Showa” (lol). Deep psychology? I wonder if there’s really anything to it. It’s simply that I haven’t found any recent songs I like. I think I just like those songs, that’s all.

I’m Flagmaker, a column writer. I’m also a music lover, but since one of the important elements of music is “共感” (emotional resonance), the kind of music someone likes might give you some idea of their personality. That said, some people are drawn to elements of music that don’t involve lyrics, such as rhythm and tone. They may prefer a particular genre because of those aspects, in which case it might not have much to do with their personality. I get the impression that this man is the latter type, so I don’t think his musical preferences are particularly relevant. I like heavy metal, underground hip-hop, and even totally shallow, paper-thin party songs, so I’m probably the kind of person for whom music taste says nothing.

I’m Kazu, a male member. I don’t think you can tell someone’s personality from their taste in music, but I’ll give it a shot. This may be biased, but it made me picture the typical mildly nerdy guy. It’s a little surprising that he’s on a dating club, though apparently a lot of men take women back to their place without agreeing on an allowance first. So maybe dating clubs have more socially awkward guys than you’d expect.