What can a 35 millisecond movement in swing jazz tell us about our sense of hearing,

capacity for music, and even human consciousness?

Scientists have made a breakthrough discovery in what makes swing jazz swing.

It's a phenomenon that's so fleeting, even professional musicians can't point to it,

but we can feel it.

The results appear in communications physics.

I'm Joseph Politoro, and you're listening to science quickly.

Swing is a subgenre of jazz, but the word swing also refers to a distinctive rhythm that

long outlasted the swing era.

It could be heard and music from Chuck Berry and The Beatles to rage against the machine

in the electronic project, anomaly.

Here's a straightforward, unswinging rhythm.

And here's a swing rhythm.

Swing rebels against a stray 50-50 meter with a prolonged first beat or down beat,

and a shortened second beat or off beat.

This swing ratio can range from light about 55% to hard around 72%.

In terms of feel, swing groups, it makes you want to move your body.

You'd think that swing ratio would be all the way to swing, but it's not.

For jazz musicians, computer-generated jazz that includes a swing ratio just doesn't swing.

Something else is going on.

This was a motivation to get into this field and to try to solve this question,

to try to explain what swing is.

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