Heart-felt music
Last week came the latest Frankie magazine in the mail, which is something nice to find in it. I was flicking through it and came upon an article with the name Peter Jensen in large type, and thought ‘oh yeah, what’s he writing about', but then had a second of confusion while I thought ‘oh wait, where am I? – what magazine am I in?’ (I also get The Briefing in the mail). This was actually an article called Lady Killer, about this fashion designer. Hah.
In this issue there is an amusing short article by Eleanor Robertson (she is so hilarious, though a teeny bit towards crass at times) on pets and music. However, it contained an interesting little piece of information:
Lots of animals (us included) are attracted to sounds that match their own vocal ranges, hearing abilities and heart rates ... A British study found dogs are most relaxed and well-behaved when Beethoven or Vivaldi is on the stereo, ignore Top 40 pop music altogether and get angsty when they hear Metallica. Actually, pretty much every animal music study confirms critters of all kinds hate metal. Monkeys in particular.
Let the reader understand.
But I was curious about this notion of music preferences matching heart rates. I like this theory. It works for me. I prefer quieter, more folksy music. I also do have a lower heart rate and lower blood pressure than some, and this, folks, is unarguably a good thing. But how might this actually correlate with fitness? Are the techno-freaks on the verge of heart-attacks? And all you people who like dancey-pop, maybe you need to get up and do some aerobics to it, which, happily for you, it is well suited to. Then I wondered whether this could mean a person’s music preferences might change as they got fitter and their resting heart-rate lowered? And that maybe this is why the folksters are the predominant wearers of skinny jeans. The implications are far, far-reaching ...
It’s possible, of course, that I am reading too much into this, but I now have a good defence for my music preferences.