Music can have a big impact on our thoughts and overall mood

If you’re like me, while you’re studying or working you probably have your headphones on and are listening to a new song or just letting YouTube run in the background while you focus on what you’re doing. If you’re on the computer or if you have music going through your ears everyday you should probably stop and think about what songs you’re playing because they are probably having a huge effect on the way you go about your day. Music has been proven to have a profound effect on the way we think and feel. If you prefer to listen to sad songs all day then chances are you will feel a bit sad, tired, or upset throughout most of the day. If you like to listen to fun upbeat songs, then you will probably have more energy and greet others more positively as well. It’s harder to have a bad day when you’re listening to one of your favorite songs. The type of music or genre also has an impact on our thoughts or feelings, if you listen to songs with tons of fast paced drum beats you’re probably going to feel like you’re more in a hurry than someone who is listening to calming and slow classical music.

Pop songs are actually designed to fit into this fast paced category where most pop songs-Coldplay, Katy Perry, etc. are usually around the same number of beats per minute. Good feeling pop songs are on average around 120-160 Bpm (beats per minute) because it is enough to get us going and feeling good without overwhelming our relaxed mood when we listen to this music. On the contrary, as you might expect most sad pop songs are usually of a slower number of beats per minute—roughly around 82-120, and because it is slower it is designed to makes us feel just a bit more sad or pensive than listening to a faster paced song. This is not always true as a sad song is still sad because of the lyrics and a lot of sad songs are much faster than this, some sad songs are 140 BPM or faster. There is also some research on how listening to songs in a minor key tends to make a feel a bit sad or pensive, and listening to songs in a major key tend to make us feel good better, but this isn't perfectly researched either.

If you don’t know what I’m talking about or you think I’m crazy check out this Youtube video where this talented drummer plays through 24 songs all about 120 BPM and most of them are feel good songs.

Also, check out this cool website I just found where you can look up the number of beats per minute for most songs: https://songbpm.com/

Thanks! I hope you enjoyed this article. Please leave a comment below, or let me know what your favorite song is so I can mix up my playlist.