Although none of the COOT children seemed to prefer their “womb” music overall, this fourth piece was as popular as the fast pop, even for the non-COOT families where the children had not heard these pieces before. This shows that the COOT mothers made good choices of music to play their babies before birth! It also shows that children aged three-and-a-half are able to make definite choices about the music they want to hear.

So why do children like particular kinds of music? The three-and-a-half year olds all tend to choose fast music when they’re given a choice. We know from adult studies that liking for faster music might be related to aspects of personality, such as sensation-seeking. I also studied children’s personalities, but there were no clear links between personality and musical preference at this age. We need to remember that both their music preferences and their personalities are still developing at this age, so these links might become more important later on.

This new study shows that music is a very strong influence in young children’s lives, both as part of their routines and their free time. One of the most important uses of music in children’s lives is a social one. Singing songs at nursery, making up rhymes with other children in the car, singing in the bath – these are all social forms of musical engagement that have been going on for as long as we know. But I’m also seeing more modern kinds of social engagement with music, such as arguing over which CD to put on, dancing around the living room in front of a TV music channel, or singing (and dancing) along to the children’s programmes on TV.

There are very few moments when young children listen to music on their own: only one child in my study has her own personal stereo. In my view, music is for sharing, and technology has opened up many opportunities for doing just that. The “soundtrack to our lives” means we don’t always have to sing well or remember all the words to have a singalong – this means music can be fun without necessarily being very skilful! Taking an interest in children’s musical tastes can help parents and other family members really get to know what’s going on in their lives, and it can be a good way of talking about feelings as well as activities. Ultimately musical preferences are individual and personal, but they are also something we can explore and talk about as a way of sharing something important with others.