What does a song GUARANTEED to make your baby happy actually sound like?
Listen to the song - written by a Grammy award-winning star - right here, and tell us if it works on your little one...
Here at MFM HQ we were pretty curious when we got an invite to an exclusive London preview to hear what experts are calling 'the sound of happy' - a song scientifically tested to make babies happy.
Six months in the making, the song's been written by indie superstar songwriter and Grammy winner Imogen Heap (below).
A mum herself, to a little girl called Florence, in the past Imogen has spoken openly about her struggles with motherhood, once telling reporters that she felt guilty for the fact she didn't feel "immediate love" for her baby when she was born.
And now, in conjunction with C&G baby club, Imogen has been working with music psychologists from Goldsmiths University in South London as well as the mums from the C&G Baby Club - who were asked to share their babies' favourite 'happy' sounds.
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So - what's the 'happy baby' song like?
You can listen to it for yourself right here ?? by watching our video below, filmed with C&G baby club babies listening to to the finished song for the first time.
It's got all the classic cute baby noises you can imagine might be popular - whizzes, raspberries and horn noises - with happy travelling lyrics like these:
"A choo choo train, an aeroplane....weeeeee! Down the slide,
Up in the sky, deep in the ocean, through valleys and hills away we go...."
You get the idea...
What do we think?
We love the fact that someone's tried to write a song that's universally like, the happiest tune in the world, ever. Plus there's plenty of kudos in having someone as cool as Imogen involved (double thumbs up that's she's a mum ? ? ).
The end result does sound like it could be a children's show theme tune, or on a songs for babies CD: to the untrained ear we're not sure it really stands out that much from lots of other 'baby' tunes, apart from the fact we do know that every bit of it has been tested and rigorously thought out more than others.
And when we saw it being played in front of a group of babies it certainly seemed to work, and there were lots of happy little faces - so maybe there are some major subliminal happy vibes going on while it's playing ?
Speaking to Professor Lauren Stewart, one of the music psychologists from Goldsmiths involved in making the song, she told us, "There are certain elements which babies will usually gravitate to in music - such as a simple rhythm, elements of storytelling, anticipation and surprise." This tune's certainly got those in spades.
We have to say, we're not sure how many times we could listen to it ourselves without being driven a teensy bit mad by it (it is sooooo catchy) - so when we suggested to the professor that we quite liked to play music we liked to our babies - because it made us happy which in turn made them happy - she seemed to like the concept. ? ?
Now all we're hoping for is a song that's guaranteed to send our little ones to sleep ? ?
What do you think?
Have a listen to the Happy Song with your little one and let us know how they react on Facebook.
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Authors
Tara is mum to 1 daughter, Bodhi Rae, and has worked as Content Editor and Social Media Producer at MadeForMums since 2015
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