AS IF THERE AREN’T enough distractions for drivers, new research by PassMeFast has added music to the list.
Yes, you read that right! In-depth analysis of Spotify’s 20 most popular car playlists has identified the 50 most dangerous songs to listen to while driving.
As we’ve said often, distraction is a known cause of road accidents. So what if the songs drivers are playing could be deemed too dangerous to listen to?
The popular pop song Hey Ya! by Outkast has been crowned as the most dangerous driving song of all, with a distraction score of 72.6 percent. Second place is awarded to the Alternative Rock floor filler Mr. Brightside by The Killers (69.6 percent), whilst third place goes to the Hip hop entry Empire State of Mind by JAY-Z (69.5 percent).
You can discover the 50 most distracting, 50 least distracting (which is available to download as a Spotify playlist), and safe driving tips from PassMeFast here
Top 10 Dangerous Driving Songs
Using Spotify data, PassMeFast analyzed the 20 most popular driving playlists (combining 1,485 songs) and scored them in terms of danceability, high energy, and how emotionally charged they are. Those with a high distraction percentage score are energetic, emotionally charged but with low danceability. The last factor means it has an irregular beat or tempo. These scores were then averaged together to create an overall distraction score for each song. Using the Spotify API’s popularity score, only the songs with a popularity of 80+ were included to pull the top 50 results. This means only the most played songs were included.
| Song Name | Artist | Distraction Score | |
| 1 | Hey Ya! | Outkast | 72.6% |
| 2 | Mr. Brightside | The Killers | 69.6% |
| 3 | Empire State of Mind | JAY-Z | 69.5% |
| 4 | Take on Me | a-ha | 69.4% |
| 5 | Can’t Stop | Red Hot Chili Peppers | 69.0% |
| 6 | Feel So Close – Radio Edit | Calvin Harris | 68.5% |
| 7 | You Give Love A Bad Name | Calvin Harris | 68.5% |
| 8 | Bring Me To Life | Evanescence | 67.3% |
| 9 | Levitating | Dua Lipa | 67.2% |
| 10 | Dusk Till Dawn – Radio Edit | ZAYN | 66.2% |
Now it shouldn’t take you long to realise that most of these distracting songs aren’t the kind of music over-50s are generally listening to. Outkast? Jay-Z? On the other hand, Take on Me by a-ha, Can’t Stop by the Red Hot Chili Peppers could well be on your playlist.
And here’s an ironic twist: Livin’ on a Prayer by Jon Bon Jovi, number 15 on the list, is the song currently being used in a McDonald’s tv commercial, with carloads of people obviously paying more attention to the music than the driving.
Top 10 Safest Driving Songs
| Song Name | Artist | Distraction Score | |
| 1 | bad guy | Billie Eilish | 8.1% |
| 2 | July | Noah Cyrus | 9.3% |
| 3 | Bruises | Lewis Capaldi | 10.2% |
| 4 | When I Was Your Man | Bruno Mars | 10.3% |
| 5 | Love Yourself | Justin Bieber | 10.4% |
| 6 | Dancing on my Own | Calum Scott | 11.5% |
| 7 | 7 rings | Ariana Grande | 11.6% |
| 8 | enough for you | Olivia Rodrigo | 12.2% |
| 9 | Mr. Blue Sky | Electric Light Orchestra | 12.3% |
| 10 | All of Me | John Legend | 13.4% |
It’s good news for avid Billie Eilish fans as her runaway hit Bad Guy which was the best performing global single of 2019, proves to be the least distracting and therefore safest popular song to listen to whilst driving. And the list of least distracting songs probably looks a lot like what you listen to in the car.
Over-50s … as usual, responsible (and safe) drivers! Rock on!