Can’t Stop by Red Hot Chili Peppers is the most popular song to listen to when doing a trade job, according to a new study.

The American alternative rock band’s early noughties anthem appeared in the most playlists centred around building, trade and construction terms, as gathered by builder’s merchant and cement blocks supplier Travis Perkins using a Spotify Playlist Mining Tool.

You shouldn’t be surprised to hear plenty of Red Hot Chili Peppers when on a building site either, as the band’s huge hit Californication came in as the second most popular song in the study.

Most popular bands

While Red Hot Chili Peppers took the top two spots in the chart, the full top 20 features more songs by AC/DC than any other artist. Back In Black, Highway To Hell and Thunderstruck all feature in the chart from the classic Australian rock band.

There were two other bands to appear multiple times on the list – Sheffield indie band Arctic Monkeys (with the pair of hits Do I Wanna Know? and 505) and California indie band TV Girl (the hits Lovers Rock and Cigarettes Out The Window both feature).

The full top 20 songs

Back to the chart’s summit, Feel Good Inc. by alternative hip hop band Gorillaz completed the top three.

Here’s a look at the full top 20 songs to get you inspired when creating the perfect playlist for your building site:

*Songs which have references to ‘building’ in the title have been removed, due to these manipulating the data.

To make your life easier, we have created a Spotify Ultimate Tradesperson playlist so you can get straight to listening to the tracks we have recommended.

A spokesperson at Travis Perkins, commented: “Playing music around building sites is great for hiding background noise and offering a good respite whenever those in the trade have break periods. Upbeat songs certainly appear to be a top choice for those on DJ duties at work mind, if our study is anything to go by.”

Consider genres & BPM when adding to a tradesperson playlist

If you are looking to create your own playlist for a building site then, you will be wise to select plenty of alternative rock hits – six songs of this genre feature in the top 20 chart above alone, including Mr. Brightside by The Killers and Foo Fighters’ Everlong. Classic rock, indie hits and rap songs are all popular genres too.

Tradespeople also seem to want to hear songs that are at a pace that will suit their activity levels while at work.

Six of the top 20 songs above have beats per minute (BPM) which the British Heart Foundation (BHF) state is within the body’s normal pulse rate of 60 to 100 BPM, such as rap hits See You Again by Tyler, The Creator (featuring Kali Uchis) and Kanye West’s Runaway.

A further four hits are then between 130 and 150 BPM – the normal heart rate to be expected when doing exercise, according to the BHF – with Arctic Monkey’s 505 fitting the bill here.

Whichever songs are picked for your playlist on a building site, music should be encouraged when carrying out trade jobs in general. This is after a survey of 2,000 UK employees commissioned by Towergate Liability Insurance previously found that 54 per cent of those questioned said that listening to music at work boosted their mental health and happiness.

Alison Wild, Towergate SME’s Head of Marketing, pointed out: “Music has many benefits in the workplace. It helps us make the day go quicker, makes us feel good, improves the working environment, motivates us, and therefore helps us get through with otherwise boring tasks.”