South Korean scientists, who played classical pieces including Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata in rice fields, say they have identified plant genes that can "hear".
Plants are known to respond to light, wind, and soil nutrients. Some gardeners believe flowers can be revitalised by music.
The researchers, whose work is highlighted in this week's New Scientist, say their discovery could in future enable farmers to switch specific plant genes on and off - potentially making crops flower at certain times or grow more quickly.
Mi-Jeong Jeong of the National Institute of Agricultural Biotechnology in Suwon, South Korea, and colleagues began their research by playing 14 different classical pieces to rice plants.
They monitored gene expression in the plants - the process by which their DNA code is translated into instructions for biological processes such as growth.
They found that sounds at specific frequencies - 125Hz and 250Hz - made genes rbcS and Ald more active, whereas sound waves at 50HZ made their less active.
As both are known to respond to light, they repeated the experiments in the dark and concluded the sound was causing the effect.
The researchers speculated that the production of chemicals that lead to the genetic changes they observed could be harnessed to activate other specific genes that could trigger the flowering of crops.
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