Groove as a multidimensional participatory experience

Abstract

Groove is a popular and widely used concept in the field of music. Yet, its precise definition remains elusive. Upon closer inspection, groove appears to be used as an umbrella term with various connotations depending on the musical era, the musical context, and the individual using the term. Our aim in this article was to explore different definitions and connotations of the term groove so as to reach a more detailed understanding of it. Consequently, in an online survey, 88 participants provided free-text descriptions of the term groove. A thematic analysis revealed that groove is a multifaceted phenomenon, and participants’ descriptions fit into two main categories: music- and experience-related aspects. Based on this analysis, we propose a contemporary working definition of the term groove as used in the field of music psychology: “Groove is a participatory experience (related to immersion, movement, positive affect, and social connection) resulting from subtle interaction of specific music- (such as time- and pitch-related features), performance-, and/or individual-related factors.” Importantly, this proposed definition highlights the participatory aspect of the groove experience, which participants frequently mentioned, for example describing it as an urge to be “involved in” the music physically and/or psychologically. Furthermore, we propose that being immersed in music might be a prerequisite for other experiential qualities of groove, whereas the social aspect could be a secondary quality that comes into play as a consequence of musical activity. Overall, we anticipate that these findings will encourage a greater variety of research on this significant yet still not fully elucidated aspect of the musical experience.

4/4 and More: Groove in Uncommon Meters

“…While our results confirm past qualitative findings that groove is deeply tied to rhythmic features, 2,56,57 the typical coupling to pleasure was only observed within the context of common 4/4 meters. This dissociation between pleasure and the urge to move may have arisen because pleasure is more multifaceted, being affected by other properties of music like melodic complexity, 58,59 harmonic complexity, 60 and timbre.…”

“…Vocals were excluded because they capture attention more than other instruments, 62,79 are often highly syncopated, 80 could induce unwanted gender effects, [81][82][83] are subject to great individual differences in musical taste, [84][85][86] and because lyrical content impacts emotions and the urge to move. 56,87 The Pulse Entropy of each clip was calculated using the MIR Toolbox's mirpulseclarity function with the 'EntropyAutocor' setting as in previous work. 4,5,7,8,20,27,29,[88][89][90] The meter of each clip was assessed and labeled by a professional musicologist (author GSC); 34 were in 4/4 (Common) meter and 29 were in meters outside of 4/4 (Uncommon).…”

Stimulation Effects of Some Acoustical Musical Attributes on Beat-Synchronized Walking

“…However, he and others also recognized that experiencing stimulating rhythmic music is also associated with pleasure (Madison, 2006;Todd, 2000). Groove is a complex, multi-faceted concept (Duman et al, 2021(Duman et al, , 2023Stupacher et al, 2022b) that can differ in definition from one individual to another (Hosken, 2020). Most authorities now agree that groove is two-dimensional and can be described as the motivational quality (or qualities) of music that evokes a combination of pleasure and wanting to move (Janata et al, 2012, Levitin et al, 2018, and Mathews et al, 2019.…”

The perceived catchiness of music affects the experience of groove

“…However, empirical support for a relationship between groove and catchiness has been sparse and often merely insinuated. For example, in a recent study in which participants reported their own definitions of groove, ‘catchy’ came up several times [ 8 ].…”

“…In many studies, the groove experience has been equaled to PLUMM, but some accounts have shown a more nuanced picture [4,5], added a social dimension [6], or described it as a state of being [7]. Duman et al [8] developed a comprehensive definition: "Groove is a participatory experience (related to immersion, movement, positive affect, and social connection) resulting from the subtle interaction of specific music-(such as time-and pitch-related features), performance-, and/or individual-related factors" (p. 19). In the present text, we use PLUMM when referring specifically to the pleasure and urge to move aspects of groove, and groove when the concept goes beyond PLUMM, such as the experience as a whole or research on groove in general.…”