How music affects cats

We have all heard the old saying that "music sooths the heart of the savage beast". Well, I don't know if that is true in every case; but it does seem to be true in some cases.
When farmers used to milk their cows by hand; they often had a small radio out in the barn and played soothing music as they milked the cow, because it did relax the cow and she would release the milk faster and easier. I did that when I had a milk cow; and it really does work.
Here is a really interesting little video showing how cats behavior changes as they listen to music. This music was written just for cats, and it has sounds that mimic a cat's heartbeat when it is calm and happy.
It is amazing to watch the change in the demeanor of these cats when the music is turned on.

http://youtu.be/dmp8xCAnrZQ

I wish this computer would play that music! Most of my cats ignore music, although the first social cat I knew, who'd bonded tightly with me, tried to understand every word and seemed distressed by not being able to make sense of human songs.

But I *swear* my cat Bisquit (Ivy's mother, Heather's and Irene's grandmother) sang a song of celebration when her daughter Candice caught and killed a mouse all by herself. It went on much longer, with much more variation, than ordinary "come out to play or fight" caterwauling. She didn't interfere with anything Candice was doing; she just parked herself under my window, and watched Candice, and sang until I came out to see what was going on, and sort of nodded to me, and resumed singing.

According to my experience, music can help to reduce the destructive behavior in cats.

My grandmother had a cat that seemed to like music to some degree. I can't really remember what kind of music he liked specifically though. He was rather picky I guess. I used to play piano sometimes when I visited and he would sit down and listen. I got the idea that he must have liked it because when I stopped he would get up and leave right away. I thought it was really cute that he liked to listen to me. No one else in the family, including my grandma, believed he was actually listening to the music though, they all just thought that cats were not capable of enjoying human music at all and he just happened to want to sit down there, and then got bored and moved on.