Justin Bieber's a flop‚ Marvin Gaye and Rihanna score - Survey reveals best music for bedroom fun

Music improves sex‚ according to a survey by global music streaming service Deezer‚ but not all artists are equal in the bedroom - and heavy metal is a downer.

Justin Bieber’s tracks are most likely to be skipped during sex while Marvin Gaye beats current crooners Michael Buble and Lionel Richie as "the sexiest voice".

Carried out in collaboration with international sex‚ body language and relationships expert Tracey Cox‚ ‘The Aphro-Deezer-ac Report’ was conducted in the UK. South Africans can experiment to see how our tastes compare by checking out Deezer Flow‚ which‚ based on a unique algorithm‚ combines users’ favourite songs with new recommendations to create a personalised soundtrack.

Over half (55%) of those who took part in the study said that listening to music while having sex improves the experience – a fifth (19%) claim it makes them more aroused‚ a further 17% feel that it makes things less awkward and 16% say it simply makes sex better. Nearly a quarter of males (18%) claim music makes sex last longer‚ but only 9% of women agreed with this statement.

Almost half (47%) felt that rhythm was the key factor in music’s ability to improve sex‚ followed by the tone of voice of the artist (43%) and melody of the track (37%). Cox commented: "Neuroscientists have found that most people respond more to a beat when it’s played by lower pitched instruments. Physiologically‚ people’s bodies love deep bass sounds‚ which‚ if loud enough‚ also produces vibration‚ making it powerfully arousing."

Deezer’s findings suggested that music (21%) has overtaken traditional habits like drinking red wine (13%)‚ drinking spirits (9%) or eating chocolate (4%)‚ to become one of the go-to aphrodisiacs for the 21st century.

The key tracks used to set the mood were identified as Marvin Gaye’s Let’s Get It On‚ Rihanna’s sexy hit Skin and Lil Wayne’s track Lollipop.

Saturday night (15%) from 10pm to midnight (25%) was found to be the prime time to get under those bedsheets.

Identifying the relationship between time of day and the songs people choose to get intimate to‚ Deezer’s own analytics found that streams of Let’s Get It On increased by a whopping 96% on Saturdays compared to earlier in the week.

Rihanna’s track Skin also saw an increase of 23% on Saturday nights compared to Mondays and Tuesdays.

Cox agreed with the findings that music was an aphrodisiac. "Listening to music causes our brain to flood with dopamine‚ the pleasure hormone. The same thing happens when we’re getting intimate‚ so it effectively puts our bodies 'in the mood'. There’s scientific proof that music is a mood enhancer in the bedroom – but the wrong song can have the opposite effect!"

On the other end of the scale‚ Bieber topped the flops‚ with two fifths (39%) claiming his music puts them off sex. Kanye West and Eminem also need to do more to ‘hot up’ their tracks‚ with over a third claiming they would skip their music mid-flow.

When it comes to the most popular genres to get down to‚ Pop (12%)‚ R&B (12%) and Rock topped the ‘turn on’ list. But the head-banging of Heavy Metal doesn’t translate to the bedroom‚ with two fifths (40%) of those polled picking this as the biggest turn off‚ closely followed by Rap (35%).

Top ten ‘go to’ songs to get in the mood‚ according to the Deezer study:

1. Skin – Rihanna
2. Let’s Get It On – Marvin Gaye
3. Lollipop – Lil Wayne
4. Drunk In Love – Beyoncé
5. Love to Love You Baby – Donna Summer
6. Me & U – Cassie
7. Love Me Like You Do – Ellie Goulding
8. Magic – Coldplay
9. Intro – The XX
10. Sexy Back – Justin Timberlake