A Crowdfunded 'Music For Cats' Album Is On the Way

No matter how hard you try to force them to, your cats will probably never like your music. But according to composer David Teie and psychologists at the University of Wisconsin, that does not necessarily mean that you have bad taste. By using tempos and sounds that cats respond to (which are innately different than humans), Teie was able to create music specifically for the animals that is also surprisingly pleasant for their owners. "Most of our sense of music comes from the womb," he explains. "We form an understanding of rhythm from our mother's pulse. Cats establish theirs after birth from the sounds around them."

Following his popular research study earlier this year on cats and the way they respond to music, Teie shared some of the tracks that he composed for cats online (which we put to the test with unofficial mental_floss mascots Olly and Pearl). Now the musician is back with a Kickstarter project so that he can make an entire "Music For Cats" album, the first-ever collection of music scientifically crafted for the species.

Using Internet-famous cats including @nala_cat and @baconcup as models in a video (above), Teie introduces the concept and science of cat music and discusses his plans for the album. The Kickstarter campaign has already exceeded its goal of $20,000 by 300 percent, but backers can still pledge to secure a digital download or CD set of the album.