The purpose of this research is to study the musical preferences of secondary education students in the city of Melilla, Spain, a North African enclave bordered by Morocco and characterized by its cultural diversity, because there are clear differences among the music which is based on the official curriculum and the musical tastes of the young (Abeles & Cheng, 1996; Marshall, North & Hargreaves, 2005). In this sense, the development of musical preferences it is conditioned by the social-cultural context to the individual; parents, peers, mass media and school (Zillmann & Gan, 1997). The music plays an important role during adolescence, since accompanies day to day lives of young people, who spontaneously show their own preferences and tastes when it comes to listening to certain music styles away from the influence of formal education. This phenomenon is called self-socialization music by Müler (1999), a trend that marks the stage of youth in which the individual chooses their social-cultural environment in relation to their musical tastes.

The objectives of this study were;

a) To determine preferences for musical styles shown by secondary school students in the Autonomous City of Melilla according to origin cultural variable.

b) To analyze whether there are differences between the musical styles that are predominant in the official curriculum and the styles listened to by most students according to origin cultural variable.

Abeles, H. F. & Cheng, J. W. (1996). Responses in music. In D. A. Hodges (Ed.), Handbook of music psychology, 2nd ed. (pp. 285-342). San Antonio: Institute for Music Research Press. Bryant, Y. U. (2004). An examination of exposure to rap music videos: Psychosocial factors related to adversarial attitudes toward male-female relationships among African American adolescents. Dissertation Abstract International, 64(02), 1070. Campos, J. L. (2006). Interculturalidad, Identidad y Migración en la Expansión de las Diásporas Musicales. Razón y Palabra, 49, 1-3. Connell, J. & Gibson, C. (2003). Soundtracks. Popular music, identity and place. London: Routedge. Dunbar-Hall, P. & Wemyss, K. (2000). The Effects of the Study of Popular Music on Music Education. International Journal of Music Education, 36(1), 23-34. González, D. (1999). El proceso de la investigación por encuesta. En L. Buendía, D. Gómez, J. Gutiérrez & M. Pegalajar (Eds.), Modelos de análisis de la investigación educativa (pp. 171-174). Sevilla: Alfar. Lorenzo, O., Herrera, L. & Cremades, R. (2008). Investigación sobre preferencias de Estilos Musicales en estudiantes españoles de Educación Secundaria Obligatoria. En M. A. Ortiz (Coord.), Música. Arte. Diálogo. Civilización (pp. 301-332). Coimbra (Portugal): Center for Intercultural Music Arts y Grupo de Investigación HUM-742. Marshall, N. A., North, A. C. & Hargreaves, D. J. (2005). Educación Musical en el siglo XXI: Una perspectiva psicológica. Eufonía, 34, 8-32. Müler, R. (1999). Musikalische Selbstsozialisation. In J. Fromme, S. Kommer, J. Mansel & K.P. Treumann (Ed.), Selbstsozialisation, Kinderkultur und Mediennutzung (pp. 113-125). Opladen, Germany: Leske+Budrich. North, A. C., & Hargreaves, D. J. (2008). The social and applied psychology of music. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Zillman, D. & Gan, S. L. (1997). Musical taste in adolescence. In D. Hargreaves & A. North (Eds.), The social psychology of music (pp. 161-187). Oxford: Oxford University Press.