In jazz, funk and hip hop, a groove is the repeated rhythmic pattern, usually from drums and bass together, that sets the dominant feel of a piece. Being “in the groove” describes musicians locked together so that the time feels effortless. Groove depends less on the notes than on their placement and weight: small accents, ghost notes and the exact timing of each hit.
Music psychologists have also studied groove as a listener’s experience. In a 2012 study, Petr Janata and colleagues described it as the pleasurable urge to move to music; listeners rated excerpts consistently for groove, and high-groove music tended to prompt spontaneous movement. In jazz lo-fi the groove is deliberately gentle, a head-nodding pulse at a relaxed tempo rather than a dance-floor push, which helps the music stay in the background while still feeling alive.