(Credits: LastFM)
Sat 11 October 2025 10:00, UK
For whatever reason, life seems to feel a whole lot harder the moment summer ends. Seasons changing can be different for everyone, but during those darker months, things appear a little more… dreary. Thankfully, music is therapy. And so is Queen.
Scientists have proven that Queen is a literal mood-booster. Well, maybe not all of their music, as people who have ever sat down with a cup of tea and wallowed to ‘Love of my Life’ will understand. But the ones that rush through you, pulsating through your bones and making you want to get up and dance, actually have the power to pick you up out of that seasonal sadness you’re desperate to free yourself from.
When it comes to mood-boosting tunes, science decrees that most follow a similar formula: racing rhythms, accessible and catchy melodies, and major keys. Bonus points if there’s an element of nostalgia in there too. Put it this way, scientists once claimed ‘Good Vibrations’ as one of the happiest songs of all time, and it’s easy to see why.
Dr Michael Bonshor from the University of Sheffield said that most of the happiest songs have a tempo of 137 beats per minute (bpm) and a verse-chorus-verse-chorus structure. Along with that, he said that our simple human brains enjoy things “like ‘7th chords’ as they add interest – regular chords use three notes, whereas ‘seventh chords’ add an extra note which provides a sense of musical ‘tension’ and ‘relief’.”
He also explained that we enjoy beats we can dance along to and short introductions so that we don’t have to do too much thinking. A long build-up might cause our interest to wane, but a succession of gripping melodies, high volumes, and sounds that are “bright and bouncy” is “the cherry on the cake”.
With all of that in mind, it’s easy to see why most Queen hits immediate spark a reaction – we’ve all been in the car once or twice the moment ‘Another One Bites the Dust’ comes on; it’s almost impossible to stop the foot-tapping and clicking along, just as it’s impossible to not clap embarrassingly to ‘We Will Rock You’. Queen injected some kind of inexplicable magic into their music, making the physical and emotional response immediate the second their songs start.
But the happiest Queen song, according to science, isn’t any of those. In fact, it’s – you guessed it – ‘Don’t Stop Me Now’. According to neuroscientist Dr Jacob Jolij, ‘Don’t Stop Me Now’ ticks every mood-boosting box, from fast tempos, familiar melodies, and positive lyrics – all the right things to guarantee a much-needed push from that internal slump.
There’s also that sneaky nostalgia element, too, the kind that only comes with being one of the most overplayed, over-hyped songs on the planet. But the message is easy to get on board with: diving headfirst into what you enjoy, and feeling the force of it wholeheartedly while pushing off anyone who tries to stop you. Brian May initially thought it was Freddie Mercury’s cry for help, after observing how he slowly but surely adopted a detachment from anything that wasn’t his own pleasure.
But both he and Roger Taylor also praised it as a genius creation, Taylor in particular calling attention to the one line that always sticks out for anybody listening, even though he doesn’t think it’s their best song. “I don’t necessarily think it’s one of our best songs, but I love the sentiment ‘call me Mr Fahrenheit’,” he told Mojo. “It’s hilarious and it’s become a sort of rallying cry.”
Its sentiments might seem over-the-top or even artificial, especially when you’ve already heard it a thousand times and seen Shaun of the Dead more times than you can count. But even still, when it comes to neurological impact, nothing beats it.
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