Every Breath You Take by The Police is the ultimate average song

What is the best song to play, at any time of day? Danish scientists made an attempt to answer this really difficult subject. They analyzed data from over 150 million stream sessions and came up with an answer last week in a scientific article on the site of the British Academy of Sciences, The Royal Society.

It’s The Police with ‘Every Breath You Take’. The 1983 song was an instant hit, ranking #1 in the US and UK, among other countries. The song regularly returns in lists of the best songs of all time.

Music preference per daypart is different

The scientists collected a dataset containing almost 4 million unique songs. Those songs came from hundreds of millions of stream sessions in which up to twenty songs were listened to and only a few were fast-forwarded. So they were sure that Spotify users were consciously listening to the music.

After analyzing that data, the researchers saw clear differences between music preferences at certain times of the day.

In the morning people appear to prefer listening to slower though energetic music. In the afternoon people prefer for faster louder songs and in the evening music with a higher tempo, that can also be danced, is proved popular.

Mid-tempo soft rock ballad

Every Breath You Take is a ‘mid-tempo soft rock ballad’ and the ultimate average song that can be listened to at any time of day, the scientists write. According to lead researcher Ole Adrian Heggli just about everything about the song is average.

“It’s tempo is average. It’s a little groovy, but not too. There are no loud surprises in it. And above all, it’s just a very pleasant, maybe even a little bit of a saltless song.”

Sure, no doubt about it. This song, just as many of The Police, you can hear daily on 80s ALIVE. Check it out and listen!