showing 5 related works from this author
Group behaviour and interpersonal synchronization to electronic dance music
2017
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 show similar bodily responses for all three groups in the break routines: a sudden decrease and increase in the general quantity of motion.…
Peak Experiences with Electronic Dance Music
2019
This paper investigates the role of musical features in shaping peak-pleasurable experiences of electronic dance music (EDM). Typically, large structural and dynamic changes occur in an EDM track, which can be referred to as the break routine, consisting of breakdown, build-up, and drop. Twenty-four participants listened to four EDM excerpts featuring break routines, and one excerpt without a break routine. Measures were taken of skin conductance, self-reported affect, and embodied aspects of subjective experience, and incidence of pleasant bodily sensations. Participants reported intense affective experience with EDM despite being removed from the club context, and attributed this experien…
“Waiting for the Bass to Drop”: Correlations Between Intense Emotional Experiences and Production Techniques in Build-up and Drop Sections of Electro…
2014
This study investigates the correlations between theories of intense emotional experiences and production techniques used in the electronic dance music (EDM) sections “build-up” and “drop”, which are designed to build tension and create a heightened emotional intensity among clubbers. This is done by descriptive and interpretive music analysis, where spectrograms and a schematic model visually represent the dominant production techniques. Through a theoretical framework consisting of musical expectancy and gravity, the analysis suggests that i) extensive use of uplifters, ii) the “drum roll effect”, iii) large frequency changes, iv) removal and reintroduction of bass and bass drum and v) a …
Pleasurable and Intersubjectively Embodied Experiences of Electronic Dance Music
2016
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 betwee…
Optical or Inertial? Evaluation of Two Motion Capture Systems for Studies of Dancing to Electronic Dance Music
2016
What type of motion capture system is best suited for studying dancing to electronic dance music? The paper discusses positive and negative sides of using camera-based and sensor-based motion tracking systems for group studies of dancers. This is exemplified through experiments with a Qualisys infrared motion capture system being used alongside a set of small inertial trackers from Axivity and regular video recordings. The conclusion is that it is possible to fine-tune an infrared tracking system to work satisfactory for group studies of complex body motion in a “club-like” environment. For ecological studies in a real club setting, however, inertial tracking is the most scalable and flexib…