Rhythm, social unrest, mass media & math strategies

Your new Strategy Toolkit newsletter (June 2, 2024)

(1) You make me feel like dancing…

What is it exactly about a song that makes us want to start moving, to start dancing? Turns out, it’s the unexpected, combined with the familiar. A strategy that can be applied to any of the arts…

“The most dance-inducing rhythms are neither too predictable nor too surprising. An intermediate amount of syncopations — rhythmic patterns that occur when unexpected beats are emphasized — was the sweet spot for making 60 study participants want to dance. Brain activity measurements suggest that this ‘groove experience’ is triggered by the dorsal auditory pathway, which connects the auditory-information-processing region with movement areas.”*

* Arnaud Zalta et al., Neural dynamics of predictive timing and motor engagement in music listening.Sci. Adv.10, eadi2525(2024).DOI:10.1126/sciadv.adi2525