Why does music make you dance? A scientific study has revealed that bass makes you get low on the dancefloor.

There’s one sure-fire way for DJs and producers to get the crowd moving – the use of very low frequencies (VLF), too low to be detectable by ear, compels humans to dance. A study led by Daniel J. Cameron proved that an audience listening to electronic music danced more when VLF played than they did without the frequencies.

The study in question featured a 45-minute show by Orphx at LIVELab, McMaster University. Throughout the EDM concert, music blasted through the house PA system, and every two minutes VLF speakers were also turned on.

A sound tech did their usual job as if there was no research taking place. There were also projected images from a live video artist, but neither performer was in control of when the VLFs played, as researchers turned the speakers on and off again.

The crowd wore motion-sensor headbands to measure how much they grooved to the music, and were asked to fill out surveys. What the researchers found was that concertgoers experienced an “urge to move” particularly when the VLF were playing – and did indeed dance more, a 12% increase to be exact.

Why do we dance to music?

The research findings will come as no surprise to anyone who’s ever been in an EDM crowd, but it nevertheless interesting to see scientific proof. What’s not clear is why bass makes your hips move and feet stomp.

On that note, McMaster reported the researchers had speculated: “The feeling of vibration through touch and the interactions between the inner ear and the brain have close links to the motor system… These physical processes are at work in the neurological connection between music and movement. This anatomy can pick up on low frequencies and can affect the perception of “groove”, spontaneous movement, and rhythm perception.”

Spontaneous seems to be the word – something makes humans unable to resist the delicious feeling of needing to move to music.

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