A MUSICAL JOURNEY -- THE MONKEYS AND METALLICA

This could explain a whole lot of things about  music and music fans that have puzzled me over the years. 

THE MONKEYS ARE FANS OF METALLICA

A group of cottontop tamarins were played a variety of music, including Bach, Led Zeppelin and Miles Davis, but they only reacted when heavy metal rock songs by Metallica were played.

He would fit right in with a heavy metal concert!

Psychology Professor Charles Snowdon teamed up with musician David Teie, who plays cello for the National Symphony Orchestra. They found that 30-second clips composed by Mr Teie on the basis of actual monkey calls provoked the strongest reaction.

Of all the human bands played to the tamarins, Metallica calmed them down.

Photo by Getty

They look calm don't they?  Much calmer than the next picture!

Mr Teie of the University of Maryland composed using specific features he noticed in the monkey's calls, attempting to convey two opposite emotions – danger and safety.

"I WANT MY MTV!!!"

The monkeys responded accordingly being either anxious or relaxed.

The pair also found monkeys use tone, pitch and other auditory clues to express emotions.

Prof Snowdon, from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, told the Royal Society Journal Biology Letters: "My talking does not necessarily tell you about my emotional state.

"When I add extra elements, change the tone of voice, the rhythm, pitch or speed, that is where the emotional content is contained.

"Monkeys interpret rising and falling tones differently than humans. Oddly, their only response to several samples of human music was a calming response to the heavy-metal band Metallica."

Prof Snowdon added that human babies are also able to interpret tone and pitch.

"We use legato – long tones – with babies to calm them. We use staccato to order them to stop," he said.

"Approval has a rising tone, and soothing has a decreasing tone. We add musical features to speech so it will influence the affective state of a baby. If you bark out 'PLAY WITH IT' a baby will freeze.

"The voice, the intonation pattern, the musicality can matter more than the words."

The music is a Metallica song, but I chose to use a version by a group of cellists called Apocalyptica