'Don't Stop Me Now' is the happiest song in the world, according to a neuroscientist

Numerous studies have already identified a link between happy feelings and listening to music.

A study by the University of Missouri had people listening to ‘upbeat’ music over the course of two weeks and results were clear: listening to music – without a clear genre in mind – tends to make people happier.

Now, researchers are trying to distil the perfect happy song.

And they may have found it (with a couple of key caveats)

Neuroscientist Jacob Jolij created a formula for happy songs by studying 126 songs from a 50 year period. A survey by British electronics company Alba had Britons pick which songs made them feel happiest.

Jolij then took their answers and examined the songs with the highest scores. He looked at the beats per minute (BMP), the key, the theme and analysed the lyrics.

In a blog entry he wrote:

The pattern was very clear. The average tempo of a ‘feel good’-song was substantially higher than the average pop song. Where the average tempo of pop songs is around 118 beats per minute (BPM), the list of feel good songs had an average tempo of around 140 to 150 BPM.

So what song meets the ‘happy’ criteria, with over two thirds of the votes?

Queen's Don't Stop Me Now

However, upon learning of this, reddit users were quick to disagree.

Mikaiketsu wrote:

All countries must have their versions of ultimate feel good songs.

Another user pointed out that the study only looked at the opinions of 2,000 participants, hardly enough to come to a vaid conclusion about the happiest song in the world.

We'll let you decide: does Freddie Mercury's voice fill you with ecstacy?

More: Popular song lyrics you never noticed were creepy as hell

More: These are the most timeless songs on Spotify