Are people who are different the same?

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Music. Are there any patterns in the music aspies listen to?

The Smiths, Radiohead, Bob Dylan, Bjork, David Bowie,

These all make life enjoyable and appeal to the same qualities that bring me to this forum. I feel like people with my sort of thinking style would also love these.

I'm looking for patterns among us. Aside from the obvious ones.

Or do you have other theories on common qualities among us? The ones you won't find in any autism books or anything.

I do not think there are any patterns in music. Everyone has individual tastes. I don't like anything in your list. Probably no one reading this has heard of Percy Jones. I suppose the same applies to anything like books, art, plays, movies, etc. since they are matters of individual taste.

Aspies aren't the only group out of the whole population that are different.

Do you think Heavy Metal music is more common among 17 year olds or elderly people?

Do you think Justin Bieber is more common with girls or guys?

Do you think Miles Davis sells more records in New York or Texas?

You wouldn't say there are no patterns because everyone has their own taste. Everything has patterns and statistics.

What does this mean?

Aspies aren't the only group with disorders or disabilities.

Technically speaking, yes. However, look at your own examples, you have to reduce the subject matter of the question to one term and also limit the response.

In practice, to find a pattern among such an unstructured group like people with ASD, you'd need a whole tail of individual surveys.

Having an ASD is insufficient as a statistical feature if the question is aimed at something that
a) has nothing to do with ASD
b) is too specific

You can find general trends like a preference for fiction or non--fiction, but I doubt that you'd find a pattern if the questions are too detailed, like particular interprets.

I don't know if this poll will be large enough to show anything, but us listening to different music doesn't seem like such a strange idea to me. Just going by some autist stereotypes you could make various predictions that might actually show up in a large enough poll:
- we are social outsiders so we aren't as influenced by fads -> we don't like mainstream pop idols as much as NT society
- continuing that, as outsiders we may affiliate with other "outsider" groups and listen more to their music
- being sensory sensitive we dislike anything false, loud, shrill or screaming, and prefer more perfect sounding music like classical music
- et cetera

Yes, we have patterns. Go to the music section and you'll likely find that, no matter what the genre, it'll likely come off sounding good to you. I was pretty shocked to notice that. I thought there was a pattern, but it's deeper, like a chord or harmony we all resonate. I believe our obsessiveness is done in a common way, which makes a more sophisticated understanding of our interests along this same chord.

People with Asperger's are very different from each other. There are no fixed patterns, but here are some key features I've noticed:

- Often poor at sports requiring teamplay, but can do well in individual sports (martial arts, bodybuilding, weight lifting, surfing, ice skating etc.)

- Often hold very anti-authoritarian political views (anarcho communism, libertarianism and so on)

- Generally uninterested in mainstream popular culture

Who suggested they are?

I like David Bowie and Bob Dylan and Radiohead, but yeah I listen to anything from oldschool sort of rock to death metal.

No we "different" people are very different from one another.....we differ in our brands of differentness .

I listen to children's folk music and other children's songs a lot.....that's what I'm listening to at the moment. I also listen to musical music like the songs from Sweeny Todd, Nightmare Before Christmas, Oliver , Fiddler on the Roof ect. Sometimes I lsiten to pop-rock or alternative type music - mostly from the 90"s like Greenday Nickleback and Matchbox 20. I also like some country and pop music (but don't listen to it much) and I like some Hebrew (Israeli) and other Mediterranean music.

I also know another aspie girl from my support group who's obsessed with Korean pop music (Kpop).

Ok this one is interesting to me. Explain what makes you think these views would make sense to aspies. Because I have trouble thinking aspies could be anything but democrats.

Thank you. I just want a thread with constructive ideas. Why is everyone so defensive. Save that for dinner with parents.

Defensiveness normally comes from some sort of trigger.... Not sure what it could be, apart from the idea of taking away our individuality amongst the ASD community?

I like looking for patterns and common themes, also, and people get defensive with me about it

I like all of this music myself, in particular radiohead and david bowie. They aren't my main passion though.

My favourite bands are Pearl Jam, Muse, Placebo, Smashing Pumpkins, Everclear (used to be one of my special interests!!), Rammstein, Nirvana, Simon & Garfunkel, Tori Amos...

Most of these are from the 90s, which is when I was a teenager. I think many people get stuck in the music that they liked as a teenager, forever, for some reason.

For me, I love music that has lots of emotion in it. I dislike modern day hip hop, R&B, and pop music, because I find it lacking in depth. It is a very surface music, if that makes sense. Surface level and hence multitasking stuff I associate with NTs, whereas localised, deep, one area at a time stuff I associate with ASDs...

Just my 2c