<\/p>\n
A new AlphaTheta<\/a> backed study has revealed how movement to electronic music can help to keep anxiety at bay and increase feelings of joy, immersion and connection to others [via MusicRadar<\/em><\/a>].<\/p>\n The study was carried out by Emma Marshall, founder of Music And Movement Is Medicine (MIM) with research led by Professor Paul Dolan from the Behavioural Science faculty at the London School of Economics.<\/p>\n Hosted at Drumsheds nightclub in London, participants were guided through quiet listening and breathing exercises, through seated movements, to standing, and eventually free dance, all while using devices to measure their heart rates. Approximately 60 people took part, with over 600,000 heartbeats captured across the event.<\/p>\n During the \u2018guided breathing and seated\u2019 stages, there was an 18.5 percent rise in heart rate variability, a sign that the nervous system was shifting to a calmer state. The research also revealed that when the DJ dropped the tempo during breakdowns, participants\u2019 heart rates stayed elevated, suggesting the body had entered a state of sustained immersion. Self-reported data collected from the participants also revealed that anxiety scores fell, joy scores rose, and feelings of connection to others increased significantly.<\/p>\n Mark Grotefeld, AlphaTheta\u2019s General Manager, says of the study: \u201cAt AlphaTheta, we\u2019ve always known that music moves people \u2013 and this research offers fascinating insight of how and why. These findings open up conversation about how the tools DJs use every day can have a measurable impact on human physiology, and should change how we think about the role of music in people\u2019s health and wellbeing.\u201d<\/p>\n Paul Dolan states, \u201cThanks to these data, we can see how the body immediately reacts to changes in BPM. It turns out the DJ is doing something physiologically significant \u2013 not just playing music but guiding the nervous system. This opens up new ways of thinking about electronic music.\u201d<\/p>\n Emma Marshall adds: \u201cThis isn\u2019t just about dancing. When the music and the experience are structured in a specific way, they guide the body through a clear cycle \u2013 calm, build, peak, and recovery. The data shows measurable stress regulation happening in real time, not as a side effect, but as the direct result of how the experience was designed.\u201d<\/p>\n Luke Huxham, Managing Director of Broadwick Live (Drumsheds) has also said the study provides language and evidence to take to local councils, policymakers, licensing authorities, and public bodies \u201cto make a stronger argument for why [nightclubs and live music] spaces need to be protected. That feels overdue, and we\u2019re proud to have helped facilitate this first phase of research.\u201d<\/p>\n Rachel is a DIY musician who began learning guitar and keyboard from her bedroom at 14. She has written news and features for MusicTech since 2022, and also has bylines across Kerrang!, Guitar.com, and The Forty-Five. Though a lover of heavy music, her guilty pleasure is 2000s pop.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Get the latest news, reviews and tutorials to your inbox.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n \u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source musictech.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A new AlphaTheta backed study has revealed how movement to electronic music can help to keep anxiety at bay and increase feelings of joy, immersion and connection to others [via MusicRadar]. The study was carried out by Emma Marshall, founder of Music And Movement Is Medicine (MIM) with research led by Professor Paul Dolan from […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1975370,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25179],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2414843","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-music"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/YouTube-Music-celebrates-its-10th-anniversary-with-Bandsintown-partnership-and.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2414843","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2414843"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2414843\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2414844,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2414843\/revisions\/2414844"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1975370"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2414843"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2414843"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2414843"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Get the MusicTech newsletter<\/h2>\n