When I first started out, I was listening to a lot of 2 Tone stuff, Blondie, The Jam and others as the mod revival was the big thing in the early 80's.
A lot of these bands were using Fender Precisions apart from Bruce Foxton who used a R*******er but I didnt like the look of that, It looked ugly to me. (Although he later used a P bass)
With the wide range of tones they got from the Precision = the deep bassy ska of Sir Horace and Bedders, the plectrummy twang of JJB and Lynott etc, I naturally gravitated towards a P Bass.
However, these days there is a lot more choice of basses than there was then. But today, still mainly use a Precision.