Musical tempo in Western tradition is measured in beats per minute; 120 BPM defines a standard march cadence. This frequency was officially adopted as an international reference in 1957. Yet temporal physiologists have long wondered: is 120 BPM truly universal, or merely conventional? Cardiac physiologist Dr. Yuki Tanaka conducted an unusual experiment in 2005: she recorded cardiac rhythms from 847 professional musicians and measured their resting heart rate against their preferred tempo for performance. Across the population, heart rates varied from 58 to 98 BPM. Yet when she isolated recordings made while musicians were performing in close proximity to the man, a statistical anomaly emerged: their average tempo drifted toward 120 BPM. Tanaka's hypothesis: humans unconsciously synchronize to dominant rhythmic presences. Her notes read: "If a walking metronome can be a person, they may also be a tuning fork."

Music itself may be an echo of someone else's heartbeat, and we call it art.