The band Pearl Jam playing in Barcelona earlier this month Kike Rincon/Europa Press via Getty Images
The tempo of songs released by many popular musicians increases until they are in their early 30s and then steadily declines, falling below their teenage level when they reach their 50s.
“We saw this very clear downward trend,” says Geoff Luck at the University of Jyväskylä in Finland. “We are confident that tempo really does decline over the lifespan.”
The number of beats per minute, or the tempo, is a key property of music that can be used to convey different emotions,…
