Now more than ever, people are listening to popular songs in order to lift their spirits. Several years ago, a professor of neuroscience in The Netherlands (Dr. Jacob Jolij) analyzed the results of a British survey of top “feel-good” songs in an effort to identify a formula to separate feel-good songs from other music. While feel-good songs are a matter of personal preference, Jolij observed that music generally recognized as feel-good songs: (1) have average tempos in the 140-150 BPM (beats per minute) range, which is higher than the average of 118 BPM for typical pop songs; (2) are written in major keys; and (3) include lyrics about happy or positive subjects. Although this formula is admittedly imprecise and not scientifically reliable, test your knowledge of the intellectual property behind the works listed on Dr. Jolij’s list of Top 10 Feel-Good Songs:
