A new intimacy study published by ZipHealth has examined the correlation between music and sex and the findings are interesting to say the very least.
Analyzing 11,267 songs across 148 playlists on Spotify, filtered using keywords like "BDSM", "sex" and "making love", researchers also interviewed 1,004 Americans to find their listening habits behind bedroom doors. Better narrowing down the field, researchers only included genres which had 20 or more respondents, to offer better insight to what people chose as their sexual soundtrack.
Of those surveyed, 47% reported listening to music during sex with 53% reporting not - this number also included those that identified with "rarely" listening to music during sex.
As it pertains to the world of heavy music, the study found that artists like Deftones, Nine Inch Nails, even Slipknot and System of A Down were among the artists that have helped soundtrack a sizable portion of people's sexy time. While "heavy metal" was ranked as only the 7th of 8 top genres, Deftones managed to earn the 3rd spot across all artists, genres and sex-related playlists, flanked by the likes of The Weeknd, Drake, Kanye West and Lana Del Ray.
Among the top 10 songs correlated to sex and the bedroom soundtrack, it's likely no surprise that Nine Inch Nails' "Closer" notched a healthy spot on the shortlist - sitting at number 5 across all playlists. For those opting for "heavy metal" while they get to heavy petting, Deftones, Slipknot and System of A Down were the top three artists that anchored the genre.
The study also found how music seems to compliment a healthy sex life. Statistically, 68% of those surveyed said music helps reduce sexual performance anxiety, with 63% reporting music actually increased sexual duration.
Additionally, those that said they listen to music during sex also reported having sex more frequently, notching higher numbers in the "very frequently", "frequently" and "occasionally" categories. Evidently, heavy metal music also adds a little horse power in terms of endurance. Participants reported an average time of 30.8 minutes in duration, fourth among popular genres and following closely behind hip hop, classical and alternative.
Check the complete findings from the ZipHealth study - HERE
