Gloomy Winter Days Prompt Us to Play Funky Music
I don’t know what this winter has been like where you are, but outside my office window it’s been depressingly gloomy. In all of January, my skies were sunny for all of fifty hours. No wonder all I want to do is nap.
When it comes to music, though, Spotify has discovered something interesting. From The Times of London:
In the summertime, when the weather is fine, we Brits switch over to less “bouncy” and danceable music, preferring to save the likes of Mungo Jerry for grey cloudy days.
That is according to Spotify, the streaming service, which has partnered with a weather forecaster to create playlists of the music that people in cities around the world listen to in different weather conditions.
The “climatune” playlists were compiled using data from 1,000 weather stations and over 85 billion streamed tracks of all genres over one year. Overall, people listen to happier, bouncier and more danceable music when it’s sunny and more downbeat music when it’s cloudy or rainy — hardly surprising.
However, the UK bucked the global trend, with Britons more likely to play dance music as well as “bouncy” genres such as skiffle and reggae when it’s cloudy and less likely when the sun is out. This trend does not extend to rainy weather, when we do opt for sadder, lower-key choices.
