Many of us have that one musical artist or band we just can’t stand. Some of us despise entire genres of music. But what if there was a way to make you actually like those once-reviled songs? New research with (you guessed it) magnetism suggests this might be an actual possibility some day. How? Through a new process called transcranial magnetic stimulation. Magnetic mind control is surprisingly not a new development. Earlier this year, scientists were able to control the movements of lab mice by sending electromagnetic pulses straight to their brains. If that’s not creepy enough for you, it looks like another team of scientists has moved onto human subjects. Researchers at McGill University in Montreal are out to make you like country, or rap, or pop, whether you want to or not.

Discover New Music with Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation

By directing magnetic pulses to a certain part of the brain, researchers were able to significantly alter the time subjects spent listening to a song they would otherwise hate. Imagine going your whole life hating “Friends in Low Places,” only to be zapped by a magnetic beam and suddenly you’re doing a line dance. Scarier yet, the study also concluded that people are more likely to pay for music they otherwise wouldn’t like when subjected to this transcranial magnetic stimulation.

How Does Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation Work?

Here’s what the authors of the study had to say: We found that we could induce significant bidi-rectional changes in both the pleasure from listening to music and motivation to purchase it, providing evidence that both liking and wanting can be causally manipulated by altering fronto-striatal excitability. In other words, the magnets they use trick your brain into making you excited about otherwise unexciting things. As mentioned above, magnetic pulses target certain areas of the brain, stimulating certain chemicals to elicit a desired reaction. In this case, that chemical is dopamine. Dopamine basically controls what you find pleasurable. It’s responsible for the feeling you get when you see a loved one, see something funny, or listen to a favorite song. By directing a wave of magnetic energy at the part of the brain where dopamine is “stored,” scientists can control a flow of the chemical to the rest of your brain. In other words, if you’re listening to a song you don’t like, but are then hit with a dose of dopamine, chances are you’re going to start enjoying whatever it is you’re experiencing—including previously undesirable music. It’s unclear what this research will lead to. However, while transcranial magnetic stimulation is a bit creepy, it remains a significant scientific breakthrough powered by magnetism. Make sure to regularly check back on our blog for more developments.