Music we enjoy changes over course of day, say scientists

The type of music we like to listen to depends on the time of day, a study has found. Over the course of a day, the music we enjoy the most changes, with fluctuations in the preferred tempo, perceived “loudness”, “bounciness” and “danceability”.

In late-morning, around 11am, the ideal “loudness” increases to the highest point of the day, with the energy levels of the music picking up. Supreme, by Robbie Williams, is a song emblematic of this time window, scientists say.

After noon however, the tempo increases dramatically, and beat strength and danceability reach higher levels than in the morning.

“The highest tempo was found in the evening [between 8pm and 11pm], together with peaks in beat strength and danceability.

“In the night [between 11pm and 4am] both loudness and tempo fell to their lowest values,” the study authors from Aarhus University and The Royal Academy of Music Aarhus in Denmark write in their paper, published in the journal Royal Society Open Science.

The picture is a little more muddled for the hours of 4am to 6am, as the handful of people awake at this hour are often up to very different activities.

Dr Ole Adrian Heggli, of Aarhus University, said: “Our results tells us that a circadian rhythm is also present in something as ‘personal’ as musical preference, and we seem to have an intuitive knowledge that certain types of music are better suited for certain periods of the day. Whether that is due to the biological circadian rhythms, or due to how a society has structured everyday life, we do not know.”