Re: [microsound] AI & rhythm perception - 'groove' heuristics and dancing

[Damian Stewart <damian@xxxxxxxxxx>]

David Powers wrote:
> The problem is your assumption that grooves are universal ... Who
> exactly gets to judge what makes a good groove? How do you know
> everyone would agree on this?

I don't think everyone would agree about what some 'universal' good groove 
is, not at all. However I do think that within within a particular musical 
genre or subgenre there is an agreement about what a good groove sounds 
like - if you play a song from a particular genre of groove-based music to 
a group of people who all claim to like that particular genre, then I 
expect you'd find fairly consistent agreement amongst those people as to 
whether that particular groove was 'good' or 'bad' or whatever.

Moreover, speaking of my own criteria for deciding whether a groove is 
'good' or not, I believe that groove makes itself apparent in much too raw 
and physical a way to be culturally determined. If it makes me feel like 
dancing, then it makes me feel like dancing; I don't believe that that 
aspect of 'grooviness' is culturally determined.

In fact this 'dancing' aspect tends to heighten my belief in a mathematical 
basis for groove; when I'm dancing and I slip into the 
staying-out-all-night mode it's largely because the DJ is playing music 
which has rhythmical patterns that resonate with particular kinds of muscle 
movement. Groove-based dancing to me is all based on the circular movement 
of parts of my body; it's about synchronising body motion with musical 
motion in ways that make it feel effortless. To me, that implies a strong 
kinetic basis for groove, which itself implies a mathematical basis.

It is my belief that these kinetic relationships hold for all sufficiently 
'groovy' grooves. They won't have /the same/ relationships of course, and 
the relationships need to be flexible enough that all sufficiently 'groovy' 
grooves, as judged by a cross-section of listeners, are included.

--
Damian Stewart
+64 27 305 4107

f r e y
live music with machines
http://www.frey.co.nz
http://www.myspace.com/freyed

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