- Potentially 'distracting' and 'safe' Valentine's Day driving songs revealed
- Songs with faster tempo and more 'aggressive' rhythm could impact driving behaviours, says science
- She Loves You by The Beatles could be a distraction for some
- I Knew I Loved You by Savage Garden among 'safest' Valentine's Day anthems
With Valentine’s Day fast approaching, many lovebirds will be cruising along to their favourite romantic playlists. However, studies have shown music with a BPM (beats per minute) greater than 120 can result in faster driving speeds and more traffic violations.
Researchers at Select Car Leasing wanted to find out which love songs might be too fast and furious for the road—literally.
The analysis examined popular love and break-up songs, ranking them based on beats per minute (BPM) and their level of 'aggressiveness'—a measure of intensity that could encourage faster, more erratic driving. A song's 'aggressiveness' score was compiled using the AI-powered 'Audio Dynamics' tool.
To ensure safer driving, the music you listen to should mimic the human heartbeat, with a BPM that falls between 60-100.
Of the 100 most popular love and break-up songs, The Beatles' She Loves You was deemed the most 'distracting' song to listen to from a driving perspective. The song has a BPM of 150, 30 beats per minute over what’s considered dangerous to drive to, it also has an aggressiveness level of 84%. Alongside The Power of Love by Huey Lewis with a BPM of 130 and We Found Love by Rihanna ft. Calvin Harris with a BPM of 134, these are the only love songs featured in the top 10 'most distracting'.
Interestingly, the majority of the top 10 most distracting songs to drive to are actually break-up anthems rather than traditional love songs. Those tracks include songs like Go Your Own Way (Fleetwood Mac), Since U Been Gone (Kelly Clarkson), and The One That Got Away (Katy Perry).
Whilst technically safe to drive to due to a slower BPM, Bye Bye Bye by NSYNC and Love the Way You Lie by Eminem ft. Rihanna have aggressiveness ratings of 80% and 60% respectively, meaning more caution should be practiced when driving to these songs.
With fast tempos and high-energy beats, these tracks could leave drivers unknowingly pressing a little harder on the accelerator—perhaps in a rush to get to their Valentine’s Day date.
I Knew I Loved You by Savage Garden takes the top spot for safest love song. With a BPM of just 85 and an aggressiveness level of 6%. Followed closely by Crazy Little Thing Called Love by Queen with a BPM of 77 and Woman in Love by Barbara Streisand with a BPM of 85.
If you’re looking for the safest break-up anthems, Hide and Seek by Imogen Heap is deemed the safest. This is followed by Truth Hurts by Lizzo and Justin Timberlake’s Cry Me A River.
Fans of Beyonce, Harry Styles and Taylor Swift can all rejoice as Irreplaceable, Falling and All Too Well are all deemed safe songs to drive to.
Methodology
The top 50 Love songs and Break-up songs were picked by Billboard based on how each song performed on the Billboard Hot 10 chart. All songs were analysed for BPM, key and aggressiveness based on Audio Dynamics song analyser tool.
Songs deemed as ‘distracting’ were based on the application of research by Brodsky (2001) into how music can influence driving using >120 BPM and an energy score >0.8. However, these were not directly tested. The study, published in 2001, found that 'music tempo consistently affected both simulated driving speed and perceived speed estimates: as the tempo of background music increased, so too did simulated driving speed and speed estimate. Further, the tempo of background music consistently affected the frequency of virtual traffic violations: disregarded red traffic-lights (RLs), lane crossings (LNs), and collisions (ACs) were most frequent with fast-paced music'.
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