Conference Agenda

Since its emergence in the 1990s, neo-soul has been associated with the term “groove” by creators and critics alike (Thompson 2022, 2020; Touré 2000; Ratliff 2000; Pareles 1999). In describing “On & On” by Erykah Badu, the “Queen of Neo-Soul” (AllAfrica 2012), Pareles highlights the “slow, undulating groove and the way its melody rippled down with light syncopations” (1997, 20). Within academia, groove has been characterized as the pleasurable physical experience of moving to music (Etani et al. 2024; Duman et al. 2024; Witek 2017; Janata et al. 2012), though the physical movements detailed are limited. In a different approach, I explore how groove is embodied in six live videos of Badu’s “On & On,” demonstrating how the coordination of the singer’s physical movements and sound enhances aspects of musical structure and lyrical meaning. Following Sterbenz (2017), I observe bodily movements as shapes in time and attend to sympathetic affective sensations that involve tension, relaxation, and the effort of creating movement.

I first examine the relationship between movement, rhythm, and meter by showing two measures of music where Badu’s right arm/hand gestures outward to the audience and reaches the highest heights on downbeats in an entrained gesture. Since such entrained motions do not align with precise isochronous beats, I draw on Danielsen’s theory of “beat bins” and extended beats (2010) to explain how the heights of Badu’s arm movements embody metrical accents in wide beat bins. Observing movement-music interactions also reveals Badu’s embodied text painting of verse lyrics. In one example, Badu regularly makes two motions that I dub “circling” and “relaxed-shrug” throughout verses. Badu’s consistent choreographed motions throughout the song and across multiple performances suggest that embodied storytelling motions are integral to live performance. Using Laban’s movement analysis terminology (1950), I trace the effort of Badu’s movements throughout four full performances, noting different approaches in movement to the verse-chorus form. By analyzing weight, time, space, and flow in movements I detail the ways in which Badu expresses form through shifting efforts.