A neuroscientist developed a formula to rank “feel-good songs,” rating Queen’s "Don’t Stop Me Now" the top pick.
Dr. Jacob Jolij, a Dutch cognitive neuroscientist with a background in using music for mood manipulation, was asked by a British electronics company to analyze, quantify and develop the formula from data gathered in a large customer survey, according to Jolij's website.
"A 'feel good song' is rather tricky to define. Music appreciation is highly personal and strongly depends on social context, and personal associations," Jolij wrote. "In that respect, the idea of a 'feel good formula' is a bit odd – factoring in all these personal aspects is next to impossible, in particular if you want to come up with a quantitave feel good formula. Basically, what you need are song features that you can express in numbers."
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The survey asked participants what their music preference was, where they got their musical taste and what their favorite songs are to improve their mood.
Jolij looked at the list of songs and starting determining key and tempo. He also analyzed when it was released, genre and lyrics.
Here are the top 10 feel-good songs based on his formula, as reported by the Daily Mail.
1. Don't Stop Me Now, Queen
2. Dancing Queen, Abba
3. Good Vibrations, The Beach Boys
4. Uptown Girl, Billie Joel
5. Eye of the Tiger, Survivor
6. I'm a Believer, The Monkeys
7. Girls Just Wanna Have Fun, Cyndi Lauper
8. Livin' on a Prayer, Jon Bon Jovi
9. I Will Survive, Gloria Gaynor
10. Walking on Sunshine, Katrina & The Waves
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