Scientists working with great white sharks in Australia have discovered the sharks behave in a calmer manner when played certain types of music. In particular, the music of Aussie rockers AC/DC seems to calm the sharks more than other kinds of music.
Matt Waller has been conducting research into how music affects the behavior of great white sharks; he's discovered that they tended to behave in a much calmer manner when played AC/DC tracks, in particular "You Shook Me All Night Long." (GuitarWorld.com should point out that sharks do not actually have ears but would be responding to frequencies and vibrations from the tracks.)
Waller told ABC News that some local divers had told him stories about the sharks responding to music, and that some music would actually calm the sharks down.
"I started going through my albums and AC/DC was something that really hit the mark," Waller said. "Their behavior was more investigative, more inquisitive and a lot less aggressive. They actually came past on a couple of occasions when we had the speaker in the water and rubbed their face along the speaker, which was really bizarre."
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Josh Hart is a former web producer and staff writer for Guitar World and Guitar Aficionado magazines (2010–2012). He has since pursued writing fiction under various pseudonyms while exploring the technical underpinnings of journalism, now serving as a senior software engineer for The Seattle Times.
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