Why We Dance
Most people in my life would agree that I am not a good dancer. That is unfortunate for me, however, because I can’t help myself from dancing when I listen to my favorite dance music. In fact, neuroscientists seem to agree that moving in time with music is fundamental to the enjoyment of music for a lot of people. According to a study conducted at the University of California, this quality of music that encourages bodily movement has been dubbed “groove.” But what actually makes a song “groovy?”
If you think of times that you most want to dance, you might envision yourself at a nightclub or a concert, with high energy, up-tempo songs blaring at a loud volume. It has been hypothesized that a common denominator between high-groove songs is a certain tempo. After all, most songs that are categorized as “dance music” tend to fall within the range of about 115 to 120 bpm. This study analyzed participants’ ratings of the “grooviness” (how much they wanted to move) in response to various musical excerpts, spanning the genres of folk, soul, jazz, and rock. Within each genre category, the stimuli were split between low and high tempo categories. In general, the faster excerpts and excerpts in the soul category elicited the highest ratings in groove (if you’re curious, the song with the highest groove rating was “Superstition” by Stevie Wonder, while the lowest rated song was “Hymn for Jaco” by Adrian Legg). As for loudness, the volume at which a song is played does not necessarily play a significant role in how much you want to dance. Another study conducted at UC found no correlations between groove ratings when manipulating the playback volume of musical excerpts.
Rhythm also plays a large part in our sensorimotor response to a given piece of music. At the University of Graz in Austria, researchers performed a study to determine the effects of rhythmic and melodic complexity on groove reports by participants. The study design was straightforward: as with the previous study, participants took the study online and were presented with musical excerpts. They were then asked to rate their desire to move to the music with a slider. The results showed that melodic complexity was not nearly as significantly correlated with groove ratings as was rhythmic complexity. One major quality of rhythmic complexity is syncopation, which is defined as the presence of auditory events at less expected time locations. Having these syncopated rhythms may motivate more free-form movement in synchrony with perceived rhythms.
Another study at the University of Graz was conducted to determine the effect of variations in bass frequency ranges for bass-heavy instruments (drums and bass) perceived groove. The audio clips were created in MIDI by professional musicians and contained several instrument layers of organ, drums, bass patterns. Half the stimuli contained “high bass,” where the bass sounds were isolated to higher frequency ranges and boosted at 100 Hz; in the “low bass” stimuli, bass sounds were isolated to lower ranges and boosted at 40 Hz. This time, participants were also required to tap along to the music on a MIDI drum pad. In general, low bass excerpts were rated as having a higher groove quality. Additionally, participants tapped along to the beat more synchronously in high-groove excerpts compared to lower groove stimuli, while also tapping harder. This may not be surprising, as most dance music tends to emphasize lower-frequency instruments in the production, including drums and bass instruments. The intensity and steadiness with which people tapped along to the music is an indicator of groove, as it conveys how easily people were able to feel the rhythm of the music.
One of the most consistent findings of all these studies was the affective influence that groovier excerpts had. Across the board, groovy songs were rated as being more enjoyable to the listener, illustrating a positive quality to music that encourages movement. Ultimately, music that elicits a behavioral response has the potential to serve a social function. Dancing, while it may be encouraged by certain musical cues such as a deep bass sound, fast tempo, and highly syncopated rhythms, can also be influenced by the behaviors of others, as at a concert or other densely occupied musical settings. Dancing not only feels good, it can also help facilitate social bonding among people. Some of my favorite memories have happened at concerts, where I was dancing along to the music among people I had never met before. While I can’t say if I was dancing well, I can at least say that I was enjoying myself.
References
Bojner Horwitz, E., Korošec, K., & Theorell, T. (2022). Can Dance and Music Make the Transition to a Sustainable Society More Feasible? Behavioral Sciences, 12(1), 11. MDPI AG. Retrieved from http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/bs12010011
Janata, P., Tomic, S. T., & Haberman, J. M. (2012). Sensorimotor coupling in music and the psychology of the groove. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 141(1), 54–75. https://dx.doi.org/10.1037/a0024208
Stupacher, J., Hove, M. J., & Janata, P. (2016). Audio features underlying perceived groove and sensorimotor synchronization in music. Music Perception, 33(5), 571–589. https://dx.doi.org/10.1525/mp.2016.33.5.571
Stupacher, J., Wrede, M., & Vuust, P. (2022). A brief and efficient stimulus set to create the inverted U-shaped relationship between rhythmic complexity and the sensation of groove. PLoS ONE, 17(5). https://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0266902
