“Waiting for the Bass to Drop”: Correlations Between Intense Emotional Experiences and Production Techniques in Build-up and Drop Sections of Electronic Dance Music

Solberg, Ragnhild Torvanger

doi:10.12801/1947-5403.2014.06.01.04

Cited by 30 publications

(20 citation statements)

References 28 publications

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“…The break routines of Ladykiller and Icarus have several musical characteristics in common (please refer to Solberg, 2014, for a more detailed music analysis). Briefly summarized, these similarities include: (a) sudden and large changes in the frequency register, (b) removal and gradual reintroduction of musical features, and (c) a characteristic U-shaped amplitude profile with a sudden decrease at the breakdown, and then a gradual build towards the maximum amplitude at the drop (as seen in Figures 5, 6, and 7).…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Group behaviour and interpersonal synchronization to electronic dance music

Solberg

Jensenius

2017

Musicae Scientiae

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Abstract:The present study investigates how people move and relate to each other -and to the dance music -in a club-like setting created within a motion capture laboratory. Three groups of participants (29 in total) each danced to a 10-minute-long DJ mix consisting of four tracks of electronic dance music (EDM). Two of the EDM tracks had little structural development, while the two others included a typical 'break routine' in the middle of the track, consisting of three distinct passages: (a) 'breakdown,' (b) 'build-up' and (c) 'drop'. The motion capture data shows similar bodily responses for all three groups in the break routines: a sudden decrease and increase in the general quantity of motion. More specifically, the participants demonstrated an improved level of interpersonal synchronization after the drop, particularly in their vertical movements. Furthermore, the participants' activity increased and became more pronounced after the drop. This may suggest that the temporal removal and reintroduction of a clear rhythmic framework, as well as the use of intensifying sound features, have a profound effect on a group's beat synchronization. Our results further suggest that the musical passages of EDM efficiently lead to the entrainment of a whole group, and that a break routine effectively 'reenergizes' the dancing.http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/MSX Musicae Scientiae effect on a group's beat synchronization. Our results further suggest that the musical passages of EDM efficiently lead to the entrainment of a whole group, and that a break routine effectively 're-energizes' the dancing.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Group behaviour and interpersonal synchronization to electronic dance music

Solberg

Jensenius

2017

Musicae Scientiae

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“…The passage following these passages is, however, described in multiple though related ways (see Solberg 2014 for an overview). In this article we identify this passage as the drop.…”

Section: Notesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Pleasurable and Intersubjectively Embodied Experiences of Electronic Dance Music

Solberg

Jensenius

2017

EMR

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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...

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“…EDM often features a continuous dominant bass sound, where the rhythmic structure does not necessarily depend on changes in fundamental frequency (or pitch) of the bass line but on timbre changes. These bass rhythms tend to stay fairly constant in amplitude continuously throughout the whole ‘drop’ – high energy sections of an EDM track that follow ‘rise’ sections, which build tension/anticipation (Solberg 2014). Their main dynamic is usually evoked by sets of automated timbral manipulators such as notch-/bandpass-/peak-filters, phasers, wavetable-modulations, distortions, de-tunings and several others not primarily focused on fundamental frequency (F1) or amplitude.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Controlling Perception Thresholds for Changing Timbres in Continuous Sounds

2019

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Perceptual dimensions underlying timbre and sound-source identification have received considerable scientific attention. While these scholarly insights help us in understanding the nature of sound within a multidimensional timbral space, they carry little meaning for the majority of musicians. To help address this, we conducted two experiments to establish listeners’ perceptual thresholds (PT) for changes in sound using a staircase-procedure. Unlike most timbre perception research, these changes were sonic manipulations that are common in synthesisers, audio processors and instruments familiar to musicians and producers, and occurred within continuous sounds (rather than between discrete pairs of sounds). In experiment 1, two sounds (variants of a sawtooth oscillation) both with the same fundamental frequency (F1: 80 Hz, 240 Hz or 600 Hz) were played with no intervening gap. In each trial, the two sounds’ partials differed in amplitudes or frequencies to produce a timbre change. The sonic manipulations were varied in size to detect thresholds for the perceived timbre change – listeners were instructed to indicate whether or not they perceived a change within the sound. In experiment 2, we modified stimulus presentation to introduce the factor of transition time (TT). Rather than occurring instantaneously (as in experiment 1), the timbre manipulations were introduced gradually over the course of a 100 ms or a 1000 ms TT. Results revealed that PTs were significantly affected by the manipulations in experiment 1, and additionally by TT in experiment 2. Importantly, the data revealed an interaction between the F1 and the timbre manipulations, such that there were differential effects of timbre changes on the perceptual system depending on pitch height. Musicians (n=11) showed significantly smaller PTs compared to non-musicians (n=10). However, PTs for musicians and non-musicians were highly correlated (r=.83) across different sonic manipulations, indicating similar perceptual patterns in both. We hope that by establishing PTs for commonly used timbre manipulations, we can provide musicians with a general perceptual unit, for each manipulation, that can guide music composition and assessment.

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“Waiting for the Bass to Drop”: Correlations Between Intense Emotional Experiences and Production Techniques in Build-up and Drop Sections of Electronic Dance Music

Cited by 30 publications

References 28 publications

Group behaviour and interpersonal synchronization to electronic dance music

Group behaviour and interpersonal synchronization to electronic dance music

Pleasurable and Intersubjectively Embodied Experiences of Electronic Dance Music

Controlling Perception Thresholds for Changing Timbres in Continuous Sounds

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