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  • Writer's pictureJohnny Steinberg

EVERY BREATH YOU TAKE


As a songwriter, getting the tempo of a song correct seems to become more important the more I write. This article from the Royal Society in London and Aarhus University is really interesting in that it looks at circadian processes in the body and diurnal patterns and the response to different tempos of music. They analysed 4 million songs.

So, you don’t have to plough through it, it basically says from the research that in general:

· People respond better to slower music in the morning and faster music in the afternoon but with differences according to these 5 areas “morning, afternoon, evening, night, and late night/early morning”

· If you aim to write a song that that appeals to a wider range of individuals you need to place the song at a medium tempo and from the analysis of many songs they looked at, they judged EVERY BREATH YOU TAKE by The Police as the best example of that tempo.

https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rsos.210885

Many moons ago as a drummer in a rock band I always seemed to speed up in the second set but that may have been the effect of the bottles of Rolling Rock.

PS You have my permission to play my music at anytime of the day

Best wishes Johnny Steinberg

https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rsos.210885


Let me know what you think

#johnnysteinberg #shadowland #songwriting #The Police #TheRoyalSociety #americansongwriter

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