While syncopation generally refers to any conflict between surface accents and underlying meter, in rock and other recent popular styles it takes a more specific form in which accented notes occur just before strong beats. Such “anticipatory” syncopations suggest that there is an underlying cognitive representation in which the accented notes and strong beats align. Syllabic stress is crucial to the identification of such syncopations; to facilitate this, we present a corpus of rock melodies annotated with lyrics and syllabic stress values. We propose a new measure of syncopation that incorporates syllabic stress; we also propose a measure of anticipatory syncopation, and show that it reveals a strong presence of this type of syncopation in rock music. We then use these measures to explore other aspects of syncopation in rock, including its occurrence in different parts of the 4/4 measure, its dependence on tempo, its historical evolution, and its aesthetic functions.

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.