The article analyzes the interaction of the concepts of “aesthetic values” and “ethnocultural identity”. The primacy in human life of an “aesthetic attitude” to nature, to oneself is shown on the example of the development of preferences and musical tastes of student youth - representatives of different ethnic groups. The use of a set of evaluation author’s scales of musical perception made it possible to establish that the aesthetic preferences and evaluation of musical works by students, representatives of various ethnic groups do not always depend on the ethnic coloring of music. At the same time, the presence of a system of aesthetic values is a stimulus for the formation of a person’s ethnocultural identity.