Understanding Niall's Musical Tastes #2: Driving Music

[coalescent]

Abstract

There are four major types of driving: Town driving, country driving, motorway driving and night driving. The set of suitable driving music varies with the type of driving undertaken.

Methods

A wide range of music was tested in a variety of driving situations over a five year period. Those pieces of music found to best match particular driving tasks were recorded. The top five pieces of music for each driving situation were subsequently identified.

Results

Top five songs for each driving situation.
Town Driving	Country Driving
'Harborcoat' (REM) 'The Boy With The Arap Strap' (Belle & Sebastian) 'Big Sur' (The Thrills) 'What I Thought' (Goldrush) 'Underdog (save me)' (Turin Brakes)	'Burn Baby Burn' (Ash) 'Much Against Everyone's Advice' (Soulwax) 'Lost Art Of Keeping A Secret' (Queens of the Stone Age) 'Little Discourage' (Idlewild) 'New York City Cops' (The Strokes)
Motorway Driving	Night Driving
'There Goes The Fear' (Doves) 'Nobody Girl' (Ryan Adams) 'Fool's Gold' (The Stone Roses) 'Blood Money' (Primal Scream) 'Leave' (REM)	'Paris Train' (Beth Orton) 'Never An Easy Way' (Morcheeba) 'Scattered Black And Whites' (Elbow) 'Smoke' (Ben Folds Five) 'Protection' (Massive Attack)

Conclusions

(a) Music for town driving should be relaxing yet upbeat. The music of bands such as early REM and The Thrills, and of singer-songwriters such as Ed Harcourt and Matthew Jay, is well-suited to this type of driving.
(b) Country driving is often the most enjoyable type of driving, and the accompanying music should therefore be punchy and energetic. Ash is the quintessential country driving band.
(c) Music for motorway driving should have a groove. Interestingly, positive grooves ('There Goes The Fear') and negative grooves ('Leave') are equally effective.
(d) Music for night driving should be calm and warm. Nostalgia is often appropriate. In hindsight, the finding that songs such as 'Angel' (Massive Attack) and 'Low Five' (Sneaker Pimps) are 'too dark' for night driving is obvious.

It has not escaped the author's attention that these findings suggest a mechanism for creating idealised driving compilations.

Comments

[itchyfidget.livejournal.com]

We (Fidget et al., 1999 [1]) have also identified a potential conflict in the use of relatively low-key melodies such as those produced by Massive Attack, Sneaker Pimps, et al. Preliminary findings suggest that driving to such tunes at night may put the user at risk of becoming morose and lethargic (Fidget, submitted [2]). Pilot studies indicate that judicious use of music by popular beat combos with a higher number of beats per minute, such as The Prodigy [3] and Fatboy Slim [4] may be more stimulating during night-time driving, particularly that undertaken on long stretches of motorway.

[1] Fidget, I., Ex-Fidget, Mr., et al. (1999). Driving down to Cornwall for the eclipse and setting off much too late in the day. Journal of Hindsight, 7, 39-43.

[2] Fidget, I. (2003). I just prefer driving to more upbeat stuff most of the time - keeps me awake. Submitted to Journal of Personal Preferences.

[3] Flint, K. et al. (1997). The Fat of the Land. Journal of Extreme Hair, 3, 1-10.

[4] Cook, N. (1998). You've Come A Long Way, Baby. Proceedings Of The National Academy of Artists Past Their Peak, 85, 1-11.

[pikelet.livejournal.com]

Dudette, that thesis is fucking with your prose.

[itchyfidget.livejournal.com]

Do you have a reference for that? I'm sure it's true but nobody seems to have published anything on it.

[ajp.livejournal.com]

Why do I think you're in need of much sleep, and a holiday? :-)

[itchyfidget.livejournal.com]

I can't imagine ;)

[pikelet.livejournal.com]

(a) this style makes my head hurt. Nobody can ever complain about comments on my journal ever again, capice?

(b) how come I always score higher than you in the anally retentive tests?

[coalescent.livejournal.com]

(a) this style makes my head hurt. Nobody can ever complain about comments on my journal ever again, capice?

What's the problem, exactly?

At least it doesn't take five minutes to load.

(b) how come I always score higher than you in the anally retentive tests?

Haven't the foggiest. Not complaining, though. :)

[pikelet.livejournal.com]

The threading doesn't work, and I have no idea who's replying to whom.

And Component only takes five minutes to load if your browser sucks ass. It's not pretty, and I don't like it, but it's not what I'd call slow.

And dammit! I'm complaining!

There is a whole other category of music-driving though...

[applez.livejournal.com]

The cross-country 500-800 miles per day drive, especially in the 2am hour.

Can't stand anything sleepy

Anything powerful/noisy/energetic will be jarring

Groovy probably doesn't do it either.

I generally find that in the absence of excessive caffeine, or those Chinese dried salt plums, or amphetamines ... 'hum along' music is generally best. ;-)

----

Simple but effective.

[ang-grrr.livejournal.com]

Town driving/Night driving.

Radio 2 unless Steve Wright on and then use emergency Kirsty McColl tape.

All other driving.
Radio 2 if Jonathan Ross or Parky is on else
Radio 4 EXCEPT if driving is taking place on a Saturday afternoon in football season and then the appropriate local radio station is tuned in