Musical Social Entrainment

Abstract

Over the last decade, the concept of entrainment—emerging from the fields of physics and biology—has grown as a tool for investigating rhythmic adjustments among musicians, and between different groups of musicians. When combined with methods of audio data analysis, this approach has benefits for the assessment of musical behavior, previously limited to largely descriptive ethnomusicological research based on ethnographic data collected through field study. However, musical behavior is not only biophysically determined, but also a highly social activity. Therefore, this article focuses on “social entrainment”—a concept coined by the social scientists Joseph E. McGrath and Janice R. Kelly in 1986 which recently has been taken up in music research. Relating this concept to certain approaches in relevant current empirical studies on interpersonal coordination, the authors develop their own categories of social behavior, which are broader than those of social entrainment but can accordingly be applied to the social entrainment that may occur in musical practices. These categories range from basic behaviors that do not involve social cognition but are meaningful to interacting individuals and groups, to high-order social behaviors that require collective intentionality and can lead to sophisticated interaction involving music-specific phenomena such as a “groove.” Consequently, a concept of entrainment which goes beyond both an adaptation of the established concept of physical and biological entrainment and McGrath and Kelly’s original concept of social entrainment is proposed: “musical social entrainment.” The authors use this term to refer to intra-individual, inter-individual, intra-group, and inter-group entrainment to exogenous musical rhythms—including the rhythms of other musically acting individuals and groups—embedded in a social context and contributing to sociality. Finally, reviewing selected studies relevant to musical social entrainment, the authors discuss problems and open questions concerning music-related entrainment research, and potential contributions in the future of entrainment studies in general.

Introducing “Physics of music” to students using free software

“…When there is a large audience, gradually each person attains a similar level of pleasantness and makes body movements like the other. So, good rhythmic music engages a large audience and there are similar levels of interpersonal coordination in movements and pleasant emotions which makes the large audience attract towards rhythmic music (Kim et al, 2019). Hence rhythm is an important pillar of music and more fundamental compared with other parameters.…”

Sentire: A Participative Interactive Sound Performance

“…Embodiment-based research serves as a conceptual framework to understand the relationship between attention towards one's own body and states of consciousness. Furthermore, the notion of musical social entrainment (Kim, Reifgerst, and Rizzonelli 2019) serves as a tool to interpret social interactive behaviours mediated by Sentire.…”

Fostering Social Interaction Through Sound Feedback: Sentire

“…The interaction may be more complex and require social cognition when individuals share what Searle terms 'we-intentions' (Searle 1990). An example of 'collective inter-individual behaviour involving weintentions' (Kim et al 2019: section 3.3) is continuous applause by an audience following a performance with the intent of prompting an encore. Here, the communal intent, performed individually, is oriented towards a common goal.…”

“…However, the relationship between the concepts of sound and sociality is a complex matter, raising questions regarding both the nature of musical sound and, perhaps more critically, the nature and definition of sociality. The point of departure for our discussion is a conceptualisation (proposed by some of the authors of the present article, and taking into account the musical context; Kim, Reifgerst and Rizzonelli 2019) that attempts to categorise social behaviour which comprises forms of basal social behaviour that, although not yet covered in social ontology, are nevertheless relevant to inter-individual behaviours, including those mediated by musical sound.…”