All about that bass: Audio filters on basslines determine groove and liking in electronic dance music

Abstract

Groove is defined as wanting to move the body to music. Most empirical groove research has focused on rhythmic features like microtiming and syncopation, while research on musical liking has focused on pitch, form, and repetition. Here, we examine the effect of timbre on groove and liking ratings by applying audio filters to basslines in an electronic dance music (EDM) style. We also investigate via questionnaire the role of music and dance experience, preferred genre, and gender on groove and liking. Four brief EDM loops were created, each consisting of drum samples and a synthesized bassline. Each loop had four audio filter conditions (high-pass, band-pass, low-pass, no filter) applied to its bassline. The 102 participants heard all stimuli three times, rating them for groove and liking, and then completed the questionnaire. For both groove and liking, participants gave higher ratings to the filter conditions preserving low-frequency energy (low-pass and no filter). The relation of the questionnaire data to groove and liking was limited, meriting further investigation. Overall, the results suggest that people find groovier, and like more, basslines preserving low-frequency energy. The lack of loop-filter interaction suggests that timbre can determine groove and liking across different melodic and rhythmic contexts.

Feel the bass: Music presented to tactile and auditory modalities increases aesthetic appreciation and body movement.

“…For example, filtered music highlighting the bass received lower groove ratings and less pupil dilation than filtered music highlighting the mid- and high frequencies; strongest groove ratings occurred for unfiltered music, indicating the importance and interplay between pulse, rhythmic, and melodic information across all frequency bands (Bowling, Graf Ancochea, Hove, & Fitch, 2019; cf. Lustig & Tan, 2019).…”

“…This effect of loudness on groove ratings contrasts with previous work, wherein systematic manipulation of playback loudness (high, medium [−6 dB], and low [−12 dB] intensities) did not affect the subjective ratings of groove (Stupacher et al, 2016), and overall loudness was not considered an attribute of groove (Janata et al, 2012). Although the tactile effects were far more salient and pronounced than loudness effects, loudness should be considered and studied in future work on groove (Lustig & Tan, 2019). For example, dance music is often played at loud volumes, and it is hard to imagine dancers uncontrollably moving to quiet music.…”

Redefining Groove

“…From an ethnomusicological perspective, groove is defined as an "unspecifiable but ordered sense of something that is sustained in a distinctive, regular and attractive way, working to draw a listener in" (Feld, 1988, p.76). For music psychologists, who have conducted much groove-related work over the last couple of decades, groove has come to be defined rather more simply as a: 'pleasurable desire to move to music' (Kowalewski et al, 2020;Matthews et al, 2020;Lustig & Tan, 2020;Senn et al, 2020;Haugen & Danielsen, 2020). In order to demonstrate why this definition remains limited, we will review the principal literature on groove.…”

Aesthetic Characteristics of Dance Based on Few-Shot Learning and Neural Networks

“…Generally, they rarely raise their feet, but move their feet slowly along the intended geometric figure, which is in favor of the ever-changing movements of arms and hands [ 10 ]. Lustig and Tan put forward that in dance teaching, it is important for students to understand and master the aesthetic characteristics and types of dance lyricism to improve their aesthetic ability [ 11 ]. Anderson put forward that accumulating rich life experience and artistic practice experience, going deep into the folk to carry out art gathering activities, being good at discovering and digging beauty from life, and absorbing rich nutrition from the “root” of dance art are important methods to capture dance images and enhance aesthetic ability, so as to better serve the shaping of dance images [ 12 ].…”