Peak Experiences with Electronic Dance Music

Peak pleasurable experiences with electronic dance music (EDM) are linked to specific musical features, particularly the 'drop' section of a track's break routine (breakdown, build-up, and drop). In a lab setting, 24 participants listened to five EDM excerpts, four containing break routines and one without. Skin conductance was significantly higher during drop sections than other parts of the break routine. Participants reported intense, energizing, and uplifting affective experiences, describing them as embodied and kinaesthetic, even though they were not dancing or in a club. The findings confirm that acoustic features associated with peak response in other genres also apply to EDM, and identify novel musical characteristics particular to EDM.

Study at a glance

Abstract

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 experience to the drop in particular. They described these experiences as energizing and uplifting, and pointed to an embodied, kinaesthetic experience of the music. Drop sections of the music were associated with significantly higher skin conductance response than other sections of the break routine. Analysis confirms correlation between specific acoustic and musical features and peak-response as observed with other music genres, and also identifies novel musical characteristics particular to EDM associated with peak experience. This shows that pleasurable peak experience with EDM is related to specific musical features, and has embodied spatial and kinaesthetic experiential qualities even when listened to without dancing and away from the club context.