Beck Hansen

[ZiL]

I've become a rabid fan of Beck over the past half year or so, and with rabid fandom often comes curiosity about type (at least it does for nerds like me; I'm sure some of you can relate ). Here are some general characteristics:


- In interviews he often pauses before answering questions, as if he's considering how to phrase his answers.
- His lyrics are rarely blatantly emotional (with the exception of his Sea Change album). Usually they have a lot of word play, and they tend to sound superficially nonsensical. There's meaning there, it just usually requires multiple listens to (try to) decode it.
- He tends to drastically change musical styles from album to album.
- He's a Scientologist, but he's a second-generation Scientologist. He actually didn't openly admit to belonging to the group until around 2003 or 2004 when he married his Scient. wife. Before that he mostly talked about being influenced by Judaism and Presbyterianism growing up.

Here's a good recent article with some interview bits, pages 2-4 give the most information: Paste Magazine :: Feature :: The Impenetrable Beck Hansen (Page 2)

And here's a video interview from about 10 years ago: YouTube - Beck Interview with Robot


I'm pretty sure he's an introvert, and probably a P, but I dunno about the rest.

 

[Hotherym]

What? No one answered this?

Went searching for a discussion on Beck after a dream I had last night. I never dream about 'celebrities,' but he's one of the few elite now, I guess.

In the dream I hung out with him. He was split into two 'twins' I knew were two aspects of himself. Now, I know nothing about the guy, honestly, except from the two or three small interviews I read a few years ago. It was really fascinating to talk to him in the dream and seemed extremely realistic.

Amongst some rather surprisingly cerebral discussions, I asked him to 'take the test' and reveal his personality type. One 'twin' tested ESTP, the other XNTP. OH, THANKS DREAM. That helps a lot. Does that mean he combines to make an amorphous XXTP? For some reason he's always struck me as INTP, maybe ISTP, but I really wouldn't know.

Input?

 

[ZiL]

Yay! A response! That's a funny dream...

I tend to think IXTP as well. He seems like he could be either S or N, just depends on how you spin it. I'm pretty sure at least that he's a T. In interviews he tends to skirt questions about emotional influences pretty blatantly. He's only made one "emotionally-open" cd after a breakup with a long-time girlfriend. It was wierd to hear straight-forward lyrics that actually made sense after one listen, as most of his lyrics are all over the place and take some deciphering!

His interviews are very interesting though; in some of them he sounds like quite the autodidactic intellectual.

 

[Hotherym]

The dream was a riot.

I think what I'll have to do is watch/read some interviews to get more of an idea. I've never taken a closer look, so I'm bound to get freaked out about some of the accuracy in my dream (I always do). I remember I was surprised by the 'E' that came up in it and I think I said so. Maybe he's an ambivert.

Judging by Sea Change I'd actually guess he's INTP. It seemed like the relationship he was in really did affect him, and INTPs I've known tend to be relationship brooders far more than the ISTPs I've known (and know). But an INTP making music? Now there's an oddity.

Also worth noting is I've always seen a lot of similarities between Beck and my long time guy friend who's also INTP.

 

[ZiL]

Well, as for being a musician, it sounds like he's had an alternative lifestyle from childhood. His father is a musician, his mother is involved in all kinds of artistic stuff, and his grandfather was a visual artist and was acquainted with folks like John Cage and Andy Warhol. Growing up in LA around all this, and then dropping out of school in like 9th grade or something might lead any type into an artistic profession.

 

[the state i am in]

i was so adamant that he was an infp but i am starting to give more sway to the possibility that he is intp. i just don't have a sense of intp lyrics like infp.

jack-ass is so Ne, there's feeling there, but maybe it's not Fi type feeling. maybe it's more inferior Fe well-written into existence. i'm watchin this mutations era interview and he might as well be other intps like ben folds, but musically talented.

he definitely has that weird itp Ti dom intensity. it's painful when he's looking straight into the camera, quit looking at me. maybe intp.

 

[louiesgonnadie]

There's a chance he could be INFJ. INFJ males sometimes tend to resemble INTPs.

 

[lunalum]

Seems INTP to me. Lots of fun Ne/Si showthrough in his music videos, and writes his songs quite differently than F-doms tend to do.