It’s the Bass That Makes Us Boogie

Karen Hopkin: This is Scientific American’s 60-Second Science. I’m Karen Hopkin.

Hopkin: Ever notice that some music just really makes you want to dance?

Well, a new study shows that it is, indeed, all about the bass. Because researchers have found that, during a concert, boosting the bass bumps up the boogying. The results appear in the journal Current Biology.

Daniel Cameron: Music and musical rhythm have been kind of fascinating to me for a long time, since I was a kid. In particular, the way that they make us feel.

Hopkin: Daniel Cameron is a postdoctoral fellow at McMaster University. He also plays drums.

Cameron: As a drummer, you’re interested in making the crowd want to move and feel good and give a good pleasurable time feel. And this is related to the work I do in science.

Hopkin: Cameron and his colleagues want to understand how music can engender an almost irrepressible urge to feel our bodies in motion. 

Cameron: And we knew from anecdotal evidence and other experimental evidence that there was an association between bass and dancing.

Hopkin: So,…