What makes a song 'catchy'?

Music psychologists at Goldsmiths University of London & University of York have worked out what makes a tune 'catchy' by asking thousands of volunteers to sing along with various songs. The researchers then identified the scientific properties that give certain melodies the 'sing-along' factor.

- Longer and detailed musical phrases. The breath a vocalist takes as they sing a line is crucial to creating a sing-along-able tune. The longer a vocal in one breath, the more likely we are to sing along.

- A greater number of pitches in the chorus hook. The more sounds there are, the more infectious a song becomes. Combining longer musical phrases and a hook over three different pitches was found to be key to sing-along success.

- Male vocalists. Singing along to a song may be a subconscious war cry, tapping into an inherent tribal part of our consciousness. Psychologically we look to men to lead us into battle, so it could be in our intuitive nature to follow male-fronted songs.

- Higher male voices with noticeable vocal effort. This indicates high energy and purpose, particularly when combined with a smaller vocal range.

Queen classic 'We are the Champions' topped the list followed by party anthem 'YMCA' by the Village People.

Here is the rest of the list in numbered sequences:

Queen - We are the Champions
The Villiage People - YMCA
Sum 41 - Fat Lip
Europe - The Final Countdown
The Automatic - Monster
Kaiser Chiefs - Ruby
Jimi Jamison - I'm Always Here
Van Morrison - Brown Eyed Girl
Wheatus - Teenage Dirtbag
Bon Jovi - Living on a Prayer

Monty Python's The Meaning of Life

"M-hmm. Well, it's nothing very special. Uh, try and be nice to people, avoid eating fat, read a good book every now and then, get some walking in, and try and live together in peace and harmony with people of all creeds and nations. And, finally, here are some completely gratuitous pictures of penises to annoy the censors and to hopefully spark some sort of controversy, which, it seems, is the only way, these days, to get the jaded, video-sated public off their fucking arses and back in the sodding cinema."

Me, myself and my cat

Hi, My name is Jose. I'm 17 years old. I live in Cartagena (Murcia) and I love cinema especially comedy films and silent movies . Well, some more than others but all are interesting. My favorite movies are Hermanos Marx's films but Chaplin's, Billy Wilder's, Woody Allen's and Tarantino's too.

I've got a sister who is twenty or twenty-one years old, I don't remember. She's a little silly. She also loves cinema but prefers the romantic and horror films. I eat cereals while watching a movie or popcorn too.

On the other hand, I like reading books. My favorite genre is thriller but I like also historical novel. My favorite music is the pop-rock of 70's and 80's and singers like Frank Sinatra, Freddy Mercury and Bob Dylan, I love singing Like a rolling stone.

In conclusion, I'm a normal guy, I do normal things and, sometimes, I say normal things. I've also a cat white with black patches but this I will tell you in another essay.

A Dream Within A Dream - Poe

Take this kiss upon the brow!
And, in parting from you now,
Thus much let me avow –
You are not wrong, who deem
That my days have been a dream;
Yet if hope has flown away
In a night, or in a day,
In a vision, or in none,
Is it therefore the less gone?
All that we see or seem
Is but a dream within a dream.

I stand amid the roar
Of a surf-tormented shore,
And I hold within my hand
Grains of the golden sand –
How few! yet how they creep
Through my fingers to the deep,
While I weep – while I weep!
O God! can I not grasp
Them with a tighter clasp?
O God! can I not save
One from the pitiless wave?
Is all that we see or seem
But a dream within a dream?

E.A.P.

Russell's teapot

"If I were to suggest that between the Earth and Mars there is a china teapot revolving about the sun in an elliptical orbit, nobody would be able to disprove my assertion provided I were careful to add that the teapot is too small to be revealed even by our most powerful telescopes. But if I were to go on to say that, since my assertion cannot be disproved, it is an intolerable presumption on the part of human reason to doubt it, I should rightly be thought to be talking nonsense. If, however, the existence of such a teapot were affirmed in ancient books, taught as the sacred truth every Sunday, and instilled into the minds of children at school, hesitation to believe in its existence would become a mark of eccentricity and entitle the doubter to the attentions of the psychiatrist in an enlightened age or of the Inquisitor in an earlier time" -  Bertrand Russell, Is There a God?

When I was reading Frankenstein...

"We are as clouds that veil the midnight moon;
How restlessly they speed, and gleam, and quiver,
Streaking the darkness radiantly! -yet soon
Night closes round, and they are lost for ever:


Or like forgotten lyres, whose dissonant strings
Give various response to each varying blast,
To whose frail frame no second motion brings
One mood or modulation like the last.


We rest. -A dream has power to poison sleep;
We rise. -One wandering thought pollutes the day;
We feel, conceive or reason, laugh or weep;
Embrace fond woe, or cast our cares away:


It is the same! -For, be it joy or sorrow,
The path of its departure still is free:
Man's yesterday may ne'er be like his morrow;
Nought may endure but Mutablilty."


by P.B. Shelley, Husband's Mary Shelley