Black Atlantic Rhythm: Its Computational and Transcultural Foundations

Abstract

The "Black Atlantic" rhythmic diaspora, be it realized in jazz, blues, gospel, reggae, rock, candombléé, cumbia, hip-hop or whatever, seems to have widespread capacity to facilitate dance, engagement, social interaction, expression and catharsis. This article examines the reasons for this. Black Atlantic rhythm is founded on the idea of groove or feel, which forms a kinetic framework for reliable prediction of events and time pattern communication, its power cemented by repetition and engendered movement. Overlaid on this are characteristic devices that include syncopation, overlay,displacement, off-beat phrasing, polyrhythm/polymeter, hocketing, heterophony, swing, speech-based rhythms, and call-and-response. Using an evolutionary argument, I point out here that nearly all of these have at their heart the establishment of perceptual multiplicity or rivalry, affecting expectation, which acts as either a message or a message enhancement technique (via increased engagement and focusing of attention), or both. The causal path for the remaining devices is based on adopting structures shared with speech, notably prosody, conversational interaction, and narrative. Several examples illustrate how, particularly in jazz and jazz-related forms, extensions and relatively complex creative adaptations of traditional African and African diasporic rhythmic techniques are a natural consequence of a culture of questioning and reflection that encompasses maintenance of historical reference and accommodation to innovation.

Audio Features Underlying Perceived Groove and Sensorimotor Synchronization in Music

“…Earlier theoretical considerations emphasized the roles of subtle timing deviations (microtiming; participatory discrepancies) between players/instruments (Keil & Feld, 1994;Iyer, 2002;Pressing, 2002), but recent studies failed to find a positive correlation between microtiming and perceived groove (Madison et al, 2011;Davies et al, 2013;Frühauf et al, 2013). In fact, as timing deviations increase, perceived groove decreases, particularly among musically trained individuals (Davies et al, 2013).…”

“…Greater spectral flux in low frequency bands (0-50 Hz, 50-100 Hz, 100-200 Hz) has been associated with more regular movement timing (Burger, Thompson, Luck, Saarikallio, & Toiviainen, 2012). Energy in low frequency bands is likely associated with a strong presence of bass drum and bass, instruments that predominantly drive musical groove (Butterfield, 2010;Iyer, 2002;Keil, 1995;Pressing, 2002). In dance music, the bass drum is especially powerful for movement induction (van Dyck, Moelants, Demey, Deweppe, Coussement, & Leman, 2013).…”

Exploring how musical rhythm entrains brain activity with electroencephalogram frequency-tagging

“…As one could expect, rhythm has not been similarly developed across musical cultures [110]. Importantly, as most of the empirical research on musical rhythm has been performed on Western individuals, the literature concerning beat and meter is probably biased.…”

Cross-cultural studies of musical pitch and time

“…Polyrhythms place non-trivial cognitive and motor demands on performers and listeners [50,52]. In Africa, polyrhythms create perceptual entrainment effects in ritual; effects that are linked to multiplicity of perception.…”