When you push open the doors to a dimly lit room with flashing strobe lights, filled with people moving in a synchronized way to a certain beat that is pulsating and hypnotic, it makes you ask yourself: how did techno music gain such a large momentum in the past few years? Techno, which is created with electronic instruments, evolved out of German electro-pop and American house music of the 1970s and 1980s. It has since influenced many variations of electronically produced music, such as dubstep and EDM. Techno, however, has a deeper, unfamiliar power that goes beyond its cultural influence: its capacity to alter perception, affect mental states, and induce altered states of awareness.
There is a science behind how this rich tapestry of frequencies and rhythms interacts with our brains and how these beats bypass the rational processing and diving straight into the subconsciousness. When exposed to 120 and 150 beats per minute, music can evoke an adrenaline release along with an elevation in blood pressure and heart rate, an increase in anxiety, and more. Techno music can be particularly stimulating for our hearts because it heightens our sense of engagement and motivation. Simply put, one can focus the body’s energy toward more productive pathways when the brain is stimulated. This can explain why some people prefer listening to techno beats while working out or doing some intense assignment, a lot of people report techno music to be a mood enhancer.
Techno music’s hypnotic loops and lack of lyrics allow the listener to enter altered states of consciousness by lowering the demand for active cognitive processing. This can result in ego detachment, where the lines between the self and the world start to blur, as well as dissociation, which is a sensation of floating or detachment from the body. Temporal distortion frequently causes listeners to lose track of time. Techno is positioned as a potent medium for evoking intensely immersive and internalized experiences because of these characteristics, which closely resemble those of meditation or moderate psychedelic states.
The cycle of anticipation and release used by techno music activates the mesolimbic dopamine system of the brain, especially in the nucleus accumbens, which is involved in reward and pleasure processing in the brain, particularly through bass drops and build-ups in techno music. The mix of predictability and repetition in a song or tracks, as well as sudden and unexpected changes in sound or sound tracks, leads to excitement, or a rush of dopamine, and keeps the brain stimulated wanting more.Â
Techno music’s minimalist structure that is marked by gradually evolving beats and repetitive loops, aligns with alpha brain waves which are associated with meditative and trance-like mind states. It creates a feeling of much deeper immersion, mirroring psychedelic trips, deep meditation, or creative flow. The experience of “getting lost in the music” could also be understood through neural coupling, which occurs when different areas of the brain start firing together in synchrony, coordinated all together to create a cohesive and captivating state of consciousness.Â
However that being said, techno music may both strengthen and dull the mind, which is its contradiction. In order to improve focus and attention, the brain first synchronizes with its rhythmic patterns. There is a study that shows how prolonged exposure can cause the mind to enter a hypofrontal state, which is characterized by a decrease in prefrontal brain activity. This can cause a shift toward inner focus and emotional intensity, a sensation of timelessness, and less accurate sensory perception. This is consistent with research in auditory neuroscience, which demonstrates that the brain shifts into a deeper, more passive processing phase in response to repeated sensory input rather than disengaging.
Techno is more than just a repetitive loop of beats; it’s a psychoacoustic adventure and a developing experiment with the way sound can alter consciousness. Whether you’re looking for transcendence, flow, or escape, the mesmerizing rhythms of this genre offer a glimpse into the complex interplay between beat, body, and mind. Remember when you are immersed in these beats, that feeling is not just in your mind, it is because of your mind.
