Combining Groovy Popular Music Drum Beats with Catchy Keyboard or Guitar Patterns: The Urge to Move and Catchiness in Polyphonic Context

This study investigates two relationships in polyphonic popular music: the relationship between the urge to move to music and perceived catchiness, and the relationship between the perception of a combination of musical patterns and its individual parts. In a listening experiment, 127 participants rated drum beats, keys/guitar patterns, and their combinations on urge to move and catchiness. Our analyses showed that urge to move and catchiness are positively correlated, most strongly in the combinations. Our results revealed that the urge to move and perceived catchiness positively influence each other and are interlinked in polyphonic music, while showing that the relationship between a combination and its parts is complex. We were able to predict a combination's effect based on the separate ratings of the keys/guitar and drums only to a limited extent: unless the individual instruments were rated similarly on urge to move and catchiness, the outcome showed no clear pattern in the ratings. Participants also indicated which instrument was more important for their experiences, and generally found the keys/guitar parts more important than the drums for both groove and catchiness. However, this indication was not reflected in their ratings, which also showed a generally larger influence of keys/guitar, but did not align with participants’ conscious importance judgment.