The most energetic punk rock song of all time, according to science
No one truly knows how the mind works. No amount of CAT scans or tests can ever fully reveal human nature, never allow us to understand what another person is thinking at any given moment, or mystify things like love, inspiration or creativity. There is no test for any of that. However, some responses are clear. Certain feelings are so powerful they become visible or come along with telltale signs as our bodies naturally react in a certain way to certain emotions. Energy is one of them, and science found that for a surefire way to get pumped up, hit play on this punk song.
It appears that there are certain songs that are able to totally override taste. Obviously, everyone has their own individual likes and dislikes. A person who loves heavy metal likely won’t be as moved by a gentle folk song. A gentle folk fan probably won’t be calmed or soothed by a raging doom-metal tune. Music, like all art, is also deeply contextual. One song might make a particular person happy due to a specific memory attached, or another might be upset by a track that ended up being linked to a sad or traumatic memory.
However, scientists are slowly revealing a class of songs that seem to go beyond all that and hit humans at their animalistic core. There can be something in the bare-bones build of a song that seems able to trigger a natural emotional response. For example, the University Of Sheffield found that, according to science, The Beach Boys’ ‘Good Vibrations’ is the happiest song. Dr Bonshor found a recipe for musical joy as little musical details like “a sweet spot of approximately 137 beats per minute” and the use of 7th chords to add “a sense of musical ‘tension’ and ‘relief’” can trick the brain into releasing happy feelings.
But for those who want less straight-up joy and more of a thrilling, excited feeling, the Department of Psychology at the University of California, Berkeley, has found the perfect song.
In a study involving more than 2,500 people across the US and China, they scanned through thousands of songs and musical samples, monitoring people’s reactions as well as gathering their physical and emotional repsonses. From there, they narrowed down the playlist.
In the next stage, 1,011 participants from the US and 895 from China each rated around 40 music samples based on 28 different categories of emotion. They also rated them on a scale of positivity and negativity and for levels of arousal.
The sounds they were rating ranged across all genres and even cultures as they played music from around the world to see how that would affect the results. However, in the category of the song that made them feel more energised, one song came out on top.
The Clash’s ‘Rock the Casbah’ was the song that made them feel more energised and excited, according to science and from the participants’ more personal and emotional responses. It’s understandable. There is something in that 1982 track that makes it almost physically impossible to not at least tap your feet, feeling as if even the most excited person would be perked up even a little by the catchy tune from the beloved British punk band. That’s likely the reason why the song has endured as such a timeless track, as it continues to get listeners hyped up today.
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