The present research points out the musical styles preferred by high school students from the state public schools in the city of Vitória, Espírito Santo (Brazil). This study has made possible that important data helping Brazilian teachers to improve the educational process of teaching and learning of music to be obtained. Due to the fact that in Brazil there is currently no mandatory subject of music in the official educational curriculum, the musical content in the urban informal environment education become a mandatory subject for the musical education of adolescents, one of the  major consumers of mass media.

This issue has been the target of several recent studies (Cremades, 2008; Fittipaldi, 2005, Hargreaves and North, 2000; Leung, 2004, Lorenzo and Cremades, 2008; Quadros, 2005), many of whom claim that the media act as instrument of influence on the formation and consolidation of musical preferences among adolescents (Fittipaldi, 2005; North and Hargreaves, 2000).

The objectives of this study were:

a) Identify the preferences shown by the students of Secondary Education State Schools in Vitória, Espírito Santo (Brazil) - among the existing musical styles.

b) Establishing the influence degree of different agents of socialization in the musical-cultural consumption affecting the students under study.

c) Generate new information about the music listened by middle school students, in order to consolidate musical knowledge that can be useful for music teachers in their classrooms.

Cremades, R. (2008). Conocimiento y preferencia sobre los estilos musicales en los estudiantes de Educación Secundaria Obligatoria en la Ciudad Autónoma de Melilla. Tesis de doctorado no publicada, Universidad de Granada, España. Fittipaldi, V. (2005). Musicalização através do teclado e as novas tecnologias do século XXI. Tesis de maestria no publicada, UNIRIO, Brasil. Hargreaves, D. & North, A. (2000). The Social Psychology of Music. Oxford: Oxford University Press. IBGE (2007). Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatística. Documento consultado el 05 de agosto de 2009. Disponible en: http://www.ibge.gov.br. Leung, C. (2004). Curriculum and culture. A model for content selection and teaching approaches in music. British Journal of Music Education, 21, 25-39. Lorenzo, O. & Cremades, R. (2008). Educación formal y conocimiento sobre estilos musicales en estudiantes de educación secundaria obligatoria. Eufonía, 42, 81-88. North, A. & Hargreaves, D. (2000). Experimental aesthetics and everyday music listening. En D. Hargreaves, & A. North (Eds.), The Social Psychology of Music (pp. 84-103). Oxford: Oxford University Press. Quadros, J. (2005). Música no Ensino Médio. Uma experiência com alunos do 1º ano do Colégio Indyu, Montes Claros/MG. Actas del XIV Encontro Anual da ABEM (pp. 1-6). Belo Horizonte: UEMG.