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Spotify released new research into the emotional response we have towards music, revealing the tracks most likely to trigger certain emotions.
While music has long been associated with certain moods, the research by leading music streaming service Spotify further highlights the impact music has on our emotions and behavioural patterns.
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Working alongside Jacob Jolij, Professor in Cognitive Psychology and Neuroscience at the University of Groningen, Spotify’s research reveals the songs that trigger the clearest emotional responses – be it nostalgia, anger or happiness.
The up-tempo rhythm of Katy Perry’s Birthday encourages active movement and dopamine release, leading to happiness, while the major chords in Coldplay’s Magic evoke positive feelings – with the reflective lyrics cancelling out negative thoughts, making it the perfect track to overcome fear.
Top emotional trigger tracks as advised by Jacob Jolij and Spotify:
Jacob Jolij, Professor in Cognitive Psychology and Neuroscience at the University of Grogingen, explains; “Music can have powerful effects on our emotions: from making us happy, to enabling the ability to overcome fear, certain music can trigger emotions and hormones that directly affect our moods. The list of tracks compiled with Spotify highlight some of the most effective songs to take us from sad to happy or angry to optimistic.”
1. Happiness – Katy Perry, Birthday
Happy songs are up-tempo, have strong rhythm, positive lyrics, and are typically in a major key. The up-tempo rhythm of Katy Perry’s Birthday will encourage active movement, which is good for your mood.
Furthermore some research suggests that the major key unconsciously reminds you of a falling pitch – a feature which in both human and animal vocalisations asserts dominance and confidence.
2. Sadness – OneRepublic, I Need
Sad songs have the opposing features of happy songs: they are slower and in a minor key – with the lyrics generally more negative.
The minor key present in OneRepublic’s I Need unconsciously reminds the human mind of a rising pitch, which is associated with defeat and uncertainty.
3. Optimism – American Authors, Best Day of My Life
Optimism is what psychologists call a complex emotion – it is not ‘built in’ our system by nature, but it is an emotion we learn to experience over time.
Optimistic feelings require happiness, so optimistic songs will share many features with happy songs: major key, upbeat. However lyrics – such as those in American Authors’ Best Day of My Life – are more important here as they provide the additional context to build optimism rather than purely improving mood.
4. Anger – David Guetta, Bad
Anger is a basic emotion. It is negative, and as such associated with songs in a minor key. However, as opposed to sadness, anger is what we call an approach-emotion: it involves movement, a dimension anger shares with happiness.
Combine these two and you’ve got a recipe for songs that may help in channelling our angry feelings: up-tempo songs with a strong rhythm, in a minor key, such as David Guetta’s Bad.
5. Overcoming fear – Coldplay, Magic
Fear is a negative emotion, characterised by a stress response that prepares you for a ‘fight-or-flight’ reaction.
In the modern age we often experience the same stress responses in situations where the ‘fight or flight’ response isn’t beneficial – such as an interview or presentation. In order to overcome fear, the very first thing you need to do is to minimise your stress response, followed by managing your internal thoughts. Music that can help you to overcome fear therefore needs to be slow, relaxing, but have major chords to evoke positive feelings, and lyrics that deal with your negative thoughts, such as Coldplay’s Magic.
6. Excitement – Avicii, Wake Me Up
The hormones present in the body when we are described as being ‘excited’ – such as adrenalin and endorphins – mean that excited people crave music that is positive, usually in a major key, yet more up-tempo and with a stronger beat than your typical ‘happy’ song.
And when you’re dancing with excitement to Avicii’s Wake Me Up, the lyrics in excited songs aren’t as important as they are to other moods such as anger or nostalgia.
7. Nostalgia – John Legend, All of Me
John Legend’s All of Me is an example of a song destined to be a nostalgic hit.
For many the sentimental lyrics will remind them of somebody special, improving the probability of linking the song to other senses – such as sights or smells – meaning the iconic 2014 hit All of Me is a reliable track to provoke nostalgia in listeners for years to come.
You can listen to the top seven emotion-inducing tracks here, or embed the playlist online using
Check out more Spotify mood-focused playlists by surfing the ‘Genres and Moods’ section in the Browse feature on Spotify.
Supporting information for Spotify’s Emotional Trigger Tracks
1) Spotify has drafted in Jacob Jolij to carry out a survey of the recent literature on the effects of music on emotion, and in particular which features in music evoke specific emotions.
2) Jolij has analysed the chart hits of the past 18 months on the basis of the below, and categorized them into the different emotions on the list.
• Tempo
• Musical key
• Lyrical content
Based on the literature, the songs on the lists ¹ should (and will) evoke said emotions in most people ².
3) There is no clear explanation for why minor chords sound sad, and major keys sound happy. Research has shown that newborn babies are already able to hear the difference between major and minor keys as there is something in the structure of musical keys that triggers particular processes in the brain. The association of ‘happy’ with major keys, and ‘sad’ with minor keys is by many believed to be something we learn during our childhood ³.
4) Jolij has carried out an extensive survey of the literature of the effects of mood on music. The main effects are:
• Key
• Tempo
• overall loudness.
Lyrics only come in afterwards 4.
