Starting with a brief review of the question, this article examines evidence stemming from classical, popular and ethnic music, as well as from the field of language-based taxonomies and other research areas, that seem to prove a strong correlation between aural environment and musical production. To explain these interesting phenomena, we propose the sonic affinity theory, which holds that the human musical brain is shaped by the action of surrounding sounds, which generate aural profiles and aesthetic patterns in complex reflective processes. The ability to unconsciously internalize auditory signals is the result of an adaptive evolutionary mechanism and develops into a sonic affinity.

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This study aimed to provide a quantitative frame for the theory of sonic affinity (Campos, 2016), according to which humans tend to assimilate and reproduce the sounds of the aural environments that surround them since the prenatal phase and throughout a lifetime. It consists of a survey carried out with 148 Spanish teenagers with limited formal musical training. Three "soundscape exposure/musical preference" relational axes were tested: intensive use of digital devices in relation to preference to electronic dance music, watching TV with rap/hip-hop, and home/neighborhood aural intensity with heavy metal. Statistical results supported there is a relevant association in the first two relational axes, with more restricted variables than the broader ones considered by Campos ( 2016): specifically, between playing video games (regardless of computer usage) and preference for electronic dance music; and between watching Disney movies (also watching TV in general) and preference for rap. Emotion and (the search of) identity probably play a considerable role in both positive correlations. The third relationship could be neither proved nor refuted because the data examined were not enough, and the findings remain inconclusive.

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La teoría de la afinidad sónica (Campos, 2016) considera que el cerebro musical humano está modelado por la acción de sonidos recibidos desde la formación del oído, generando perfiles sonoros y estéticos en procesos miméticos integrados en la lógica evolutiva. Aplicada al ámbito de la musicología histórica, permite analizar el siglo XIX como estadio determinante de mutaciones musicales a raíz de la revolución industrial, que aplastó la quietud sonora del Antiguo Régimen con el estruendo de las máquinas de vapor, las hilanderas mecánicas y el ferrocarril. La orquesta creció imparable, el piano duplicó en potencia y posibilidades a sus predecesores, el metrónomo y la pianola se universalizaron, y las composiciones cultas desarrollaron unos rasgos y complejidad impensables anteriormente. Asimismo, la voz humana se ahogó temporalmente bajo la avalancha instrumental.