Electronic Music and Psychological Well-Being

“Does the rhythm of this music ever change?”,  “How do you like this kind of music, isn’t it too loud?”, “How can you dance to this music?”… If you listen to electronic music, you probably came across questions like these. It is known that music is good for our psychological well-being. Is this also valid for electronic music?

First, let’s look at the biological perspective. Our ear converts sound vibrations’ mechanical energy into nerve impulses. In the wake of following a long path, we can “hear” the sounds. One of the important parts of this complex process is “localization”. Throughout the history of electronic music, localization has been crucial. Especially, researchers tend to mention the Doppler Effect while talking about the influence of localization on electronic music.

The Doppler effect is the shift in frequency induced by the movement of the sound source relative to the listener, and it can be used to establish the illusion of movement in compositions. Following the issue of how we understand and differentiate rhythm, our next topic is psychology.

What is the reason for the attractiveness of electronic music? As it was mentioned before, we know that music is good for our well-being. Being able to be your owns “self”, being a community, escaping from the daily hassles… As humans, we have a tendency to escape. Electronic music is a psychological escape ticket in this case.

These are some of the examples of how electronic music listeners describe this genre, both for the times they listen to electronic music themselves and they go to an electronic music event. There are many kinds of research that had been conducted in this area. Let’s go through some of them.

Techno music is one of the most popular genres of electronic music and there are some studies about it. One of the studies conducted by Beatrice Aaronson suggests that techno music goes beyond boundaries of the society such as race or class. The hierarchy between race and class is being removed from the techno dancefloors. Both listeners and Aaronson describe the techno dancefloor as having a sense of isolation from the constraints of society. Knowing that there is a place for you which you can escape from such boundaries has a positive effect on your psychological well-being. Feeling of being “free” can be a balance point for daily hassles.

Another study about techno that is an electronic music genre is about the experience of listening to techno with a crowd who likes it. Listening to electronic music which mostly contains little amount of words helps us to let our minds flow and not think about the rhythm of the song. This helps us to create and manage an alternative “self”. As a consequence of this, we are able to experience unity with other individuals who are also experiencing this.

As a consequence of the popularity of electronic music, there are areas that are being influenced by its popularity such as tourism. About historical tourism, we can associate electronic music and archaeology! We mentioned an electronic music event being arranged at Göbekli Tepe. This is a great way for increasing the publicity of the site. You can listen and watch one of the electronic music performances at Göbekli Tepe down below!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uDQYfCKSmT0&ab_channel=LimitsOff

Sources

• Cundy, J. (2013, January 28). Electronic Dance Music and Well-Being. Psychology Today. https://www.psychologytoday.com/intl/blog/the-beauty-in-the-beast/201301/electronic-dance-music-and-well-being.
• Toiviainen, P. (2007). The psychology of electronic music. The Cambridge Companion to Electronic Music, 218–231. https://doi.org/10.1017/ccol9780521868617.014
• Top 6 Studies on Techno Music (or what Academia Taught us about Rave Culture). DJBroadcast. (n.d.). https://www.djbroadcast.net/article/130868/top-6-studies-on-techno-music-what-academia-taught-us-about-rave-culture.
• Little, N. (2017, July 18). Why We Rave? The Human Psychology Behind Attending a Music Festival. EDM.com – The Latest Electronic Dance Music News, Reviews & Artists. https://edm.com/features/why-we-rave.