There’s a Scientific Explanation for Bass Face… Kind of

British musician and academic Milton Mermikides expounds on the “long-documented” phenomenon of bass face — or stank face, as some call it.

You know the vibe. The DJ just double or triple dropped the filthiest track you’ve heard all night — and even if you couldn’t hear it, a glance at those around you would reveal as much. That’s because everyone’s faces have twisted and contorted as if they’re in anguish from the brutal sounds ravaging their senses.

It’s not so unusual if you really think about it. We have no idea why patterns of vibration in the matter around us make us feel things so vividly in the first place. Is it such a great leap for certain ones to trigger a physical response that seems to contradict the very pleasure it accompanies? For that matter, is it any harder to explain than a human behavior such as laughter?

Apparently, the phenomenon of bass face (or stank face, as it’s called in some circles) mystified enough people that someone finally decided to find out if there was any scientific basis for this phenomenon. For his recent article in Guitar World, Phil Weller consulted musician and researched Milton Mermikides to find out more.

“Stank face is perhaps just a modern term for a long-documented musical experience which falls somewhere between deep visceral pleasure and a sort of physical engagement, irritation or even repulsion — an ecstatic ‘pleasurable pain,’” said Mermikides. “It relies on music’s unique ability to trigger a host of physical and emotional responses in the listener. These include our response to dissonance, such as the roughness of a sound — a scrunchy chord, an angular melody or a syncopated rhythm.”

Mermikides scores points in our book simply for describing a chord as “scrunchy” — but can he offer a deeper explanation as to why this happens? Apparently, dissonant elements in music can occasion a sort of interference between the senses.

“When coupled with the dopamine release from satisfying predictions and bodily engagement, these can produce ‘cross-modal’ responses,” Mermikides said. “It’s as if the music is so rich, flavoursome and satisfying it bleeds into our other senses. Not only do we hear it, we can almost taste and smell it — hence the characteristic facial and bodily responses.”

So apparently, the way that dissonance contrasts with traditional musical aesthetics can cause facial expressions that similarly contrast with how we feel in the moment. How useful is this information? Well, for now, not very — but you never know, it could act as one building block of a larger scientific breakthrough.