Is there a human predisposition to a 4/4 beat in music?

The long-running series in which readers answer other readers’ questions on subjects ranging from trivial flights of fancy to profound scientific and philosophical concepts
  
  

Four to the floor … clubbers at the Haçienda, Manchester in 1989.
Four to the floor … clubbers at the Haçienda, Manchester in 1989. Photograph: Peter J Walsh/Pymca/Shutterstock

Is there a human predisposition to a 4/4 beat in music? And if so why? Or does 4/4 just feel more natural to me because I grew up with pop/rock as the standard music form? Michael Cameron-Mowat

Post your answers (and new questions) below or send them to nq@theguardian.com. A selection will be published next Sunday.


 

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