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What makes you put a song on repeat? Perhaps it's the catchy beat, the melody which keeps you singing along, or the fun lyrics?

There are lots of factors which make a tune popular, but scientists from the University of Oxford have found a rather unusual one which you may not have considered before.

They say whether a song turns out to be an absolute bop or a complete flop could be down to the weather.

How did they study the weather and music?

The researchers looked at more than 23,000 songs that reached the weekly charts in the UK over the last 70 years, gathering historical data from the Met Office as well as Official Charts, which oversees the Official UK Top 40 Charts.

They measured three different weather conditions as part of their study: daily temperature, daily hours of sunshine, and days of rain.

They found the weather conditions and seasonal patterns play a role in which songs a person prefers to listen to and this could also influence on how well a song does in the charts.

"The UK presents a compelling case study to investigate the impact of weather on behaviour due to its well-known climate patterns, with lots of rain and notable changes in weather," said Dr Manuel Anglada-Tort who is a lecturer in the Faculty of Music and head of the Music, Culture and Cognition Lab at Oxford University.

So how is the weather linked to what people choose to listen to?

Scientists found that dance songs which are usually upbeat and can make listeners feel positive emotions like joy and happiness performed better in the charts when the weather was warm and sunny, in comparison to cold and rainy months.

They also found that songs that are popular have a stronger link with the weather at that particular time compared to less popular ones.

The scientists say their findings challenge the view that how successful a song does in the charts is only down to the quality of the music. "Our study suggests that favourable environmental conditions, such as warm and sunny weather, induce positive emotional states in listeners, which in turn, leads them to choose to listen to energetic and positive music, potentially to match their current mood," said Dr Anglada-Tort.

Adding the result "provides insight into how music choices are influenced by external factors beyond the music itself."

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However, the researchers also found songs that were less intense and had negative emotions of sadness didn't appear to be influenced by the weather in the same way."This suggests that negative emotional states may be more influenced by individual situational factors rather than general environmental conditions," Dr Anglada explained.

Despite the findings from their research, the scientists say their work only shows a link between music success in the charts and the weather conditions, and can't be applied more generally.

"Using our methods, we cannot establish any causal effect between weather and music preferences," said Dr Anglada-Tort.