When it comes to what makes a song the kind of timeless classic that people will sing along to for decades to come, it can be hard to pinpoint what makes one tune more popular than another…but that’s exactly what one team of scientists did.
In 2011, Dr. Alisun Pawley at the University of York and Dr. Daniel Müllensiefen of Goldsmiths University of London went undercover in pubs and nightclubs across northern England to collect data on “over 1,100 occurrences of people singing along,” as reported by the University of York.
In the process, they discovered the songs that make people sing along the most have five properties in common: the prominent use of a high chest voice, increased vocal effort, a male singer, and a greater clarity of consonants and little use of vocal embellishments.
Perhaps unsurprisingly — considering stadiums full of fans have been chanting the lyrics at sporting events for years — Queen’s 1977 anthem “We Are the Champions” claimed the title of “catchiest song of all time” based on Pawley and Müllensiefen’s analysis.
“Nightlife in northern England was a unique and fertile ground to observe sing-along behavior,” Pawley said of the research process. “There are not many situations in society today that can you find people jumping up and down, belting out a tune at the top of their lungs. Although this is a cultural study, its empirical approach and scientific methods allowed us to uncover patterns in human behavior.”
“Freddie Mercury’s vocal style typifies what we found inspires people to sing along — a full energy male voice, using a high chest voice and clearly pronounced words,” she added.
Number two on the list of songs with the most “sing-along-ability” isn’t particularly surprising, either: “Y.M.C.A” by The Village People. (Among the other equally anthemic inclusions are “The Final Countdown” by Europe at #4, “Brown-Eyed Girl” by Van Morrison at #8 and “Livin’ on a Prayer” by Bon Jovi at #10.)
Freddie Mercury always meant for ‘We Are the Champions’ to be a sing-along song
It seems Queen’s iconic frontman always envisioned thousands of sports fans chanting “We Are the Champions.”
“I was thinking about football when I wrote it,” Mercury once said, per American Songwriter. “I wanted a participation song, something that the fans could latch on to. Of course, I’ve given it more theatrical subtlety than an ordinary football chant. I suppose it could also be construed as my version of ‘I Did It My Way.’ We have made it, and it certainly wasn’t easy. No bed of roses as the song says. And it’s still not easy.”
“We wanted to get the crowds waving and singing. It’s very unifying and positive,” Queen guitarist Brian May agreed, according to Metro, adding, “People love it because it’s so uplifting. Although much of our music was created using multi-layered arrangements and vocal harmonies — which work especially well in the recording studio — we were into making our concerts musical events.”
Clearly, Queen achieved exactly what they set out to do…and now science has proven they are, in fact, the champions.
Related: Freddie Mercury’s Resurfaced ‘Fan Art’ of This Iconic Beatle Has People Calling Him the ‘King of Manifestation’
