Why Do People like to Listen to Music During Sex?

Editor: Johnathan Meyers | Tactical Investor

Why Do People like to Listen to Music During Sex? Helps create the mood?

A friend of mine — let’s call him Ralph* — once told me about a musical experiment he was conducting with his girlfriend for a few months. “With” isn’t the right word but if I said he was experimenting on her, you’d probably have a lot more questions. It’s not as bad as it sounds but it is pretty unusual. Basically, he played music during sex in the hopes that his girlfriend would eventually only think of sex whenever she heard one of the songs on his playlist. The idea comes from Russian scientist Ivan Pavlov’s conditioning experiment, in which he trained dogs to drool when they saw lab coats. The experiment was inhumane by all accounts, but it proved that you can have a learned behavioural response to an otherwise neutral stimulus.

When triggered, the reward system, for example, involves dopamine and endogenous opioids. Dr. Freeman explains, “Dopamine is a neurotransmitter linked with desire, wanting, craving, motivation, or anticipation of someone or something — in this instance, of our intimate partner. And endogenous opioids are the hedonic response, which includes pleasure and enjoyment.” Read more

Sex and Music

It’s a classic debate in the realm of Creationism versus evolution, of the chicken versus the egg, of almond butter versus peanut butter: Should you listen to music while having sex or not?

I know this question has perplexed humans for decades. I’m sure that “back in the day,” awkwardly fidgeting with a cumbersome record player before getting nasty was inconvenient, so most people just screwed in sad, sad silence.

But now, all we have to do is click open iTunes or Spotify, press the play button, and boom: Marvin Gaye can join you for some sweet lovemaking.

Well, everyone should listen to music while having sex. And not just because everyone loves music, but because there are actual psychological benefits, including giving you the tools to be your absolute best in the bedroom.
Cranking the tunes during sex can help you focus on your moves and distract you from negative thoughts or feelings (whether that’s fatigue, stress or anything else) that might prevent you from reaching your full potential in bed. Read more

Some scientists think musicians behave a lot like birds.

Charles Darwin was one of the first researchers to put that theory down on paper. In 1871, the famed naturalist penned The Descent of Man, where he spends 10 pages dissecting why songbirds sing their songs, and another six asking why humans do the same. The answer, he proposed, has everything to do with sexual selection. “Musical notes and rhythm were first acquired by the male or female progenitors of mankind for the sake of charming the opposite sex,” he wrote.

In 2014, a psychologist named Benjamin Charlton decided to revisit Darwin’s theory. He recruited a pool of women and asked them to listen to a series of musical compositions. According to his investigation, ovulating women tend to gravitate toward more complex compositions. Women at less fertile points in their cycle didn’t seem to care so much. (Maybe that helps explain how any number of average-looking musicians land their beautiful bedmates?)

The most compelling part of Cox’s experiment relates back to how music impacts the way we move during sex. “Almost half of the people surveyed said rhythm was the key reason why music made sex better,” she revealed. Previous studies have already identified music as a movement-inducing medium. If you like to emphasize the bump and grind during sex, then music can help keep that going. The faster the beat, the more you commit to your performance. So even if the sex session starts to tire you out, it probably won’t hit you until after the deed is done. Read more