Marvin Gaye's "Sexual Healing" tends to play as folks get in the mood to … get naughty. Any song from the "Dirty Dancing" soundtrack will make for solid background noise during sex. And many people love to get flirty as Abba's "Dancing Queen" blares through the speakers.
At least that's what the folks behind popular music streaming service Spotify discovered after commissioning a study of the relationship between music and seduction.
"It is no surprise that so many respondents claimed to find music arousing in the bedroom," music psychologist — yes, there is really such a thing — Dr. Daniel Müllensiefen says in a press statement provided to TODAY.com. "From neuro-scientific research we know that music can activate the same pleasure centres of the brain that also respond to much less abstract rewards such as food, drugs, or indeed sex."
Müllensiefen arranged for interviews with 2,000 people between the ages of 18 and 91. (There was "an almost equal gender split" between the surveyed individuals, in case you're curious.) It was through these interviews that Müllensiefen found which songs people consider "better than sex," which tunes people put on to "get in the mood," which songs are most played during sex, and more.
"The fact that Dirty Dancing has come top on the list of the best tracks to play during sex for both men and women is due to the fact that most people have a good knowledge of songs that represent romance and these tend to be from cultural references such as film," Müllensiefen explained. "People use this music to not only communicate their intentions in a romantic situation but to directly alter the mood during an encounter."
More than 40 percent of people taking part in the survey "felt that the music listened to during sex was more likely to turn them on than the touch or feel of their partner," according to a report compiled at the conclusion of the study.
So which songs work best? According to the study, tracks from the iconic soundtrack for classic 80s flick "Dirty Dancing" do the trick for most folks during sex. Marvin Gaye's "Sexual Healing" takes second place when it comes to songs played during naughty activities (but first on the list of tunes that get folks "in the mood.")
And on top of that, Müllensiefen points out, "men are more likely than women to change their music tastes and listening habits in order to ensure greater success in the bedroom – which explains the popularity of Dirty Dancing for both sexes."
What about folks who are a bit on the lonely side though? "If you don’t have a partner," says Angela Watts, Spotify's vice president of global communications, "we can highly recommend Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody, which is officially 'better than sex!'"
If you fancy checking out the individual playlists created based on the study results, here are some handy-dandy Spotify links:
- Top 20 songs considered "better than sex"
- Top 20 tracks for a romantic dinner
- Top 20 tracks for flirting on the dance floor
- Top 20 tracks to get "in the mood"
- Top 20 tracks to play during sex
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