How to perform low frequencies in the ignition path of the dance floor in nightclubs

We now have a number: Adding bass, on any track, at any time, automatically increases the activity of dancers on the floor by 12%. It’s a resultCanadian study It has just been published in the journal Current biology. These researchers turned an electronic concert into a scientific study.

It happened in an exhibition hall that doubles as a laboratory for McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. For 55 minutes, there was music from the Orphx group in the speakers and on the track, 130 people, half of whom were wearing motion-detecting headbands. During this ceremony, the researchers switched on and off intermittently, every two minutes, at very low frequencies. Note that those votes that were added or removed were undetectable to the participants. Result: when turning on the low-frequency speakers, the amount of movement of the dancers increased by 12%.

There are two possible and complementary explanations for this desire to act. The first is a pathway that science has been studying for fifteen years: our brain is more sensitive to rhythm, when given at lower frequencies. This was confirmed by Felix Bigand, who works on this topic at the Rome Institute of Technology, contacted by franceinfo. Thus, the rhythm created by the bass more easily creates a group training effect on the track, and helps the dancers to synchronize.

Then, the second explanation, and this one is new, offered by this Canadian study: is that our bodies feel the low frequencies, even when our ears can’t hear them, because the bass vibrations stimulate our touch system, our skin, but also our inner ear. This is how these lower frequencies automatically create a ripple effect on our motor system, thus making us vibrate and dance in unison.