What makes people jump to their feet and on to the dance floor?
Tomas Matthews from Concordia University's department of psychology researched just that.
Essentially, he studies groove.
Photo: 123RF
In an academic sense, ‘groove’ is a pleasurable desire to move along to music, he says.
“You want to move to it by either tapping your foot or moving your head or full body swinging around and that desire to move is pleasurable.”
It’s not just about the beat, it’s also about syncopation and about harmony.
Matthews used his background in cognitive psychology and science to find out what happens in our brain when certain beats are heard.
His recent publication, The sensation of groove is affected by the interaction of rhythmic and harmonic complexity, has unlocked some of the keys to getting people off their chairs and on the dance floor.
In terms of a medium rhythm, with what he says has the most groove, he points to a Bo Diddly song.
On the higher complexity end of the scale, you’d have a hard time tapping along to a rhythm so you’d have a hard time moving to it. That’s more like the famous scene from Psycho.
While not everyone who’s enjoying music wants to get up and dance, they will still have the desire to tap their foot or move in some way.
“Then it comes down to personality aspects to determine whether you’re really grooving on the dance floor.”
If you look at what’s popular in music, composers have already found a formula to make people want to dance, whether that’s dad-dancing or twerking.
And Matthew’s ultimate ‘groove song’?
It’s hard to go past this Stevie Wonder classic:
