Pleasurable and Intersubjectively Embodied Experiences of Electronic Dance Music

Abstract

How do dancers engage with electronic dance music (EDM) when dancing? This paper reports on an empirical study of dancers' pleasurable engagement with three structural properties of EDM: (1) breakdown, (2) build-up, and (3) drop. Sixteen participants danced to a DJ mix in a club-like environment, and the group's bodily activity was recorded with an infrared, marker-based motion capture system. After they danced, the subjects filled out questionnaires about the pleasure they experienced and their relative desire to move while dancing. Subsequent analyses revealed associations between the group's quantity of motion and self-reported experiences of pleasure. Associations were also found between certain sonic features and dynamic changes in the dancers' movements. Pronounced changes occurred in the group's quantity of motion during the breakdown, build-up, and drop sections, suggesting a high level of synchronization between the group and the structural properties of the music. The questionnaire confirmed this intersubjective agreement: participants perceived the musical passages consistently and marked the build-up and drop as particularly pleasurable and motivational in terms of dancing. Self-reports demonstrated that the presence and activity of other participants were also important in the shaping of one's own experience, thus supporting the idea of clubbing as an intersubjectively embodied experience.Submitted 2015 December 15; accepted 2016 June 13. KEYWORDS: EDM, groups in motion, pleasure, intersubjectivity, motion captureMUSIC has the unique ability to temporally synchronize us, both physically and affectively. This can be seen in the way in which a group of people are able to move "together" to music and also share similar pleasurable experiences of dancing together. Such experiences are often to be found on night-club dance floors, a setting in which people dance both individually and collectively to loud and energetic music while spectacular visual effects light up the darkened space.There are many studies of shared embodied experiences with electronic dance music (EDM) in club settings (Collin & Godfrey, 1997;Fikentscher, 2000;Garcia, 2011;Jackson, 2004;Malbon, 1999;Reynolds, 1998;Rietveld, 1998;Thornton, 1995;St John, 2004). These studies, however, have tended to focus on sociological and cultural aspects, such as identity, social interaction, gender, and sexuality, and they have mainly used interpretive readings and ethnography as points of departure. As far as we know, there are no existing empirical investigations into how people move to EDM, what happens affectively in such settings, and how these body movements and affective engagements are related to sonic features in particular.This paper reports on an experimental study of EDM dancers' experiences that was carried out in a controlled yet club-like environment. In it, we explore how the co-shaping of a shared experience happens in an EDM environment, as evidenced through motion capture data and subjective self-reports.The general resea...

Coordinated Interpersonal Behaviour in Collective Dance Improvisation: The Aesthetics of Kinaesthetic Togetherness

“…Previously, group synchronisation has been studied relatively rarely, but recently studies have looked at group-level behavior in electronic dance music (EDM) [ 72 , 73 ], as well as people dancing in silent disco [ 74 , 75 ]. In contrast to ours, the silent disco studies look at outcomes (pro-sociality, memory) at individual levels.…”

“…In contrast to ours, the silent disco studies look at outcomes (pro-sociality, memory) at individual levels. The EDM studies characterise collective movement parameters in the specific musical context, and [ 73 ] utilises both first person and third person views, emphasising how embodied and interactive the EDM experience is. The main difference between these studies and ours is that in the rhythm battle the participants supply the rhythm themselves, whereas in the EDM and silent disco studies the music and the rhythm comes from outside, and the participants dance to these external rhythms.…”

Empathy, Entrainment, and Perceived Interaction in Complex Dyadic Dance Movement

“…The presence of multiple instruments, varied divisions of the beat, tempo changes, and even complex devices such as syncopation and hemiola do not prevent the majority of us from detecting a steady pulse in music (Phillips-Silver, 2009;Repp, 2005;Repp & Su, 2013), and we are not limited to simple finger tapping or other overt beat-keeping movements (toe-tapping, head-bobbing) when we dance, although these movements may form a part of our dancing. Guided by the music's qualities, our own personalities, our emotions, and our social context (Burger, Thompson, Luck, Saarikallio, & Toiviainen, 2013;Luck, Saarikallio, Burger, Thompson, & Toiviainen, 2010;Saarikallio, Nieminen, & Brattico, 2012;Solberg & Jensenius, 2017), we seem to be able to use our bodies' full range of motion in dance to draw on an endless vocabulary of movements while still, at a fundamental level, entraining to the beat (Burger, Thompson, Luck, Saarikallio, & Toiviainen, 2014;De Bruyn, Leman, & Moelants, 2008), and presumably to each other. It is therefore necessary to explore social entrainment in complex full-body settings in order to fully understand this human ability and its role in our everyday functioning.…”

“…A few recent studies of dance have indeed begun to do just that. Using a naturalistic Electronic Dance Music (EDM) setting, Solberg and Jensenius (2017) identified that group motion increased corresponding to musical structures, and that the presence of other dancers increased enjoyment of the experience. De Bruyn et al (2008) found that dance movements in nine-year-old children were more intense during social engagement but were not more synchronized with the music.…”

Commentary on: Solberg and Jensenius (2016) Investigation of 'intersubjectively embodied experience' in a controlled electronic dance music setting

“…Becker, 2004), leading Solberg and Jensenius to describe dancing to EDM in a club setting as an intersubjectively embodied experience. Solberg and Jensenius (2016) devised a motion capture study to explore some of these issues. Specifically, they wanted to test the following predictions: 1) that participants' movements would differ in response to different passages of the break routine of tracks (breakdown, build-up, drop), with increased movement after the drop; 2) that there would be a relationship between pleasurable experiences and structural features of the music; and 3) that there would be evidence of intersubjective embodied understanding of the musical features of EDM.…”