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Syncopation, Body-Movement and Pleasure in Groove Music

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  • Maria A G Witek
  • Eric F Clarke
  • Mikkel Wallentin
  • Morten L Kringelbach
  • Peter Vuust

Abstract

Moving to music is an essential human pleasure particularly related to musical groove. Structurally, music associated with groove is often characterised by rhythmic complexity in the form of syncopation, frequently observed in musical styles such as funk, hip-hop and electronic dance music. Structural complexity has been related to positive affect in music more broadly, but the function of syncopation in eliciting pleasure and body-movement in groove is unknown. Here we report results from a web-based survey which investigated the relationship between syncopation and ratings of wanting to move and experienced pleasure. Participants heard funk drum-breaks with varying degrees of syncopation and audio entropy, and rated the extent to which the drum-breaks made them want to move and how much pleasure they experienced. While entropy was found to be a poor predictor of wanting to move and pleasure, the results showed that medium degrees of syncopation elicited the most desire to move and the most pleasure, particularly for participants who enjoy dancing to music. Hence, there is an inverted U-shaped relationship between syncopation, body-movement and pleasure, and syncopation seems to be an important structural factor in embodied and affective responses to groove.

Suggested Citation

  • Maria A G Witek & Eric F Clarke & Mikkel Wallentin & Morten L Kringelbach & Peter Vuust, 2014. "Syncopation, Body-Movement and Pleasure in Groove Music," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 9(4), pages 1-12, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:plo:pone00:0094446
    DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0094446
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    Cited by:

    1. Jonah Katz & Emmanuel Chemla & Christophe Pallier, 2015. "An Attentional Effect of Musical Metrical Structure," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 10(11), pages 1-14, November.
    2. Olivier Senn & Lorenz Kilchenmann & Toni Bechtold & Florian Hoesl, 2018. "Groove in drum patterns as a function of both rhythmic properties and listeners’ attitudes," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 13(6), pages 1-33, June.
    3. Brian C Wesolowski & Alex Hofmann, 2016. "There’s More to Groove than Bass in Electronic Dance Music: Why Some People Won’t Dance to Techno," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 11(10), pages 1-23, October.
    4. Martin Alejandro Miguel & Mariano Sigman & Diego Fernandez Slezak, 2020. "From beat tracking to beat expectation: Cognitive-based beat tracking for capturing pulse clarity through time," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 15(11), pages 1-22, November.
    5. Tomas E Matthews & Maria A G Witek & Ole A Heggli & Virginia B Penhune & Peter Vuust, 2019. "The sensation of groove is affected by the interaction of rhythmic and harmonic complexity," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 14(1), pages 1-17, January.

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