Why are cars and music so inseparable?

There comes a point in everyone's driving career where you edge out of the nervous learner phase and slowly gain confidence. You start negotiating highways with ease, carving through city blocks without nerves and generally feel at home on the road. It's when you reach this point that you probably start feeling comfortable enough to drive with music streaming out of the car radio – and thus experience one of life's great epiphanies: cars and music are a brilliant, vital combination.

But why? Here are our thoughts, but we really want to hear yours in the comments – and remember to find out how you can use Alexa in your car.

Driving is as therapeutic – and so is music

We've all been there – you've headed out for a long drive and ended up at your destination an hour or two away with no real recollection of the journey. It doesn't mean you've fallen asleep at the wheel (we hope), but rather you've engaged with driving on a subliminal level and have probably used the drive to let your mind chew over whatever's important in your life right now. Work. Your kids. Your next Xbox game. Food. Put simply, driving can be therapy for an over-worked brain.

Life is a highway. Or something.

Life is a highway. Or something.

Music does the same thing – how often have you drifted out of a conversation in a restaurant because there's one of your favorite tunes playing quietly in the background?

Combine the two and you have all the ingredients for a transcendent experience as the Tarmac slips under your wheels and the notes of your beloved tunes roll into your ear canals.

Both music and driving can spike your pulse

It doesn't happen all that often, but when you're in the mood for a fast, twisty drive then you enter a state of rebellious excitement. Blipping downshifts, feeling for grip from the front axle and hearing your engine rip to the redline on corner exit. It doesn't matter whether you're in your mom's shopping car or your fully modded import – the experience of driving fast gets your heart beating like a rock drummer who's seen their rider of burgers 'n' beer being snaffled by the support band.

Sprinkle some fast-paced rock or electronic tunes over the top (perhaps using Alexa to help) of this experience and the music and your driving feed off each other. Now, we're not saying we condone driving recklessly, but who hasn't found a song that perfectly fits their, ahem, elevated pace? When you find a road and a song that match then there's nothing else like it.

Cars and music are cultural bedfellows

It feels as though we'll struggle to see modern electric cars as cultural icons, but you only have to look back 4 years to see how motors and music have linked together in the cultural zeitgeist. Yeah we said zeitgeist, sorry. What we really mean is that cars on camera have often been as iconic as the songs that soundtracked them.

Sorry Bond, we're taking the Subaru

Sorry Bond, we're taking the Subaru

Take the red Subaru Impreza WRX from 2017's Baby Driver and chances are you'll also think of Bellbottoms by the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion that plays over the movie's opening heist scene. Think of an Aston Martin DB5 and what noise do you hear in your brain? Probably not the note of an old straight-six engine, that's for sure.

After a while it becomes hard to separate truly iconic cars from the music of their time – even if they weren't in films. Computer games also have a huge part in this for my generation. Advertisements do the same for others. Put simply, it's hard to imagine cars existing outside of music.

Get more music on the move with Alexa

Of course there are more modern ways to listen to music on the move than by rattling through a litany of mixtapes in the glove compartment. Check out Alexa to see how you can control your music in your car.

Which music do you associate with cars? Tell us in the comments!