Heart music
Most of us know eating a balanced diet helps maintain a healthy heart, and that there’s nothing better than a romantic ballad to nourish blossoming love. But did you know blasting Beethoven might also help to keep your cardiovascular system in tune? New research suggests that music can directly trigger physiological changes that modulate blood pressure, heart rate, and respiration. I’m definitely breathless after listening to Cyndi Lauper’s I Drove All Night, but that might be from dancing my rigorous jazz ballet routine, not necessarily from the emotion it engenders.
Researchers have found that the continuous, and somewhat predictable changes in the cardiovascular and respiratory systems, mirror musical tempo. They suggest that understanding the mechanisms of how certain types of music affect our physiology could lead to potential new therapies for stroke and other conditions – many already attest to the healing powers of Jimmy Page’s guitar solos, or the Raconteur’s legendary riffs.
According to an article in Scientific American, “Scientists found that musical selections with crescendos, especially those with a series of them (think: Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody), led to proportional constriction of blood vessels and increases in blood pressure, heart rate and respiration. These measures decreased during decrescendos and silent periods. The team also found that “rich” music phrases around 10 seconds long, like those rhythms from famous arias by Verdi, caused heart rate and other parts of the cardiovascular system to synchronize with the music. Both groups experienced this entrainment, although musicians showed a stronger response.”
Of course, this paper provides further evidence that it’s always a BAD idea to listen to overly lugubrious songs about love lost after a break-up – there’s finally proof that the physical pain you felt when you’re heart was breaking wasn’t entirely made up.
Luckily, I have the perfect recipe to keep my heart pumping to the right beat – My Secret Playlist. Discover what tracks get your favorite musician’s heart started. Donna Summers loves Ferggie’s Big Girls Don’t Cry – for those of you who thought musicians only listen to their own genre, get ready to eat your heart out (while still maintaining good cardiovascular rhythms, of course).
Tagged: disco, Donna Summer, My Secret Playlist, The Epi-Cure
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On our sister site, My Secret Playlist, we invite our favorite musicians, DJs and producers to write about eight songs that are inspiring them right now. You can hear some of the tunes that the artists select and discover a whole heap of cool music along the way. Some of the musicians to compile a Secret Playlist so far include The Dandy Warhols, The B52s, Donna Summer (disco, baby), Girl Talk, Cold War Kids, Moby, The Presets and The Vines.
Oh boy, Donna Summer writes a Secret Playlist
What’s not to love? Moby told us this recently about the Donna Summer disco classic, I Feel Love: ‘This is the best electronic club song ever recorded. It breaks my heart to know that I’ll never write anything as good as I Feel Love. I always play it when I DJ, though not the remixes; the original version. I never play remixes. I saw Donna Summer perform once and I went backstage afterwards to say hello, terribly drunk and stumbling about. She was polite and friendly, but she must have been horrified at the sight of this scruffy drunk accosting her after her show. I found out later that she was a tea drinking Christian’. With that in mind, we asked the Queen of Disco to write us a Secret Playlist of her eight favourite songs right now. Which she did. Suprises? Well, how many people would have picked Barbara Streisland and Sting in the same set list. Check out what she had to say.
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Babylon Circus’ Secret Playlist
Lyon-based Babylon Circus is music laced with ska, gypsy, rock, vaudevillian antics, dancehall and reggae. Their first Australian East Coast tour in 2008 saw the nine piece band sell every show out. They feature on the So Frenchy So Chic compilation. We asked them to tell us about their favourite music right now, and they started with Django Reinhardt’s Minor Swing [listen below]: ‘Backstage, home, in the bus, cooking or having breakfast, is there a time you wouldn’t love to hear this one? We love it anytime, any style, too, as it’s been remixed and rearranged so many different ways. Still, we love the original best’. Read the rest of Babylon Circus’ Secret Playlist.
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