This research seeks to understand how emotion and pleasure connect with Elton John's music. First, I argue that enjoyment of this music arises in part when on how listener's expectations for harmonic and melodic musical parameters are subverted. This research draws primarily on David Huron's theory of expectation to show how music that deviates from expected norms can be re-evaluated positively. In addition to Huron, I draw on empirical psychology studies that have determined a number of musical correspondences to emotional evocations. Throughout my analyses, I examine how specific chord placement may incite emotion for the typical listener of pop/rock music, and I contend that those specific chords and their placement reliably create emotions that are linked to enjoyment. I also find that elements like melodic contour, repetition, and perceptual salience play a significant role in shaping the listener's reactions to musical stimuli.
In the second half of the dissertation, I use empirical research studies to help me address the physiological element of musical listening and enjoyment. I find that listeners use their bodies to entrain to rhythm and react to musical stimuli through laughter, tears, and frisson. Additionally, I investigate the embodiment of music and emotion through the bodily experience of Elton John as a pianist and singer. My analyses explore embodied emotional gestures on the keyboard and how those gestures bear on the listener's emotional connection to the music. Lastly, I speculate about how Elton's vocal gestures influence song expression and emotional evocation. This investigation of bodily reactions to music explores how the body might enjoy certain aspects of music and how bodily enjoyment factors into emotion. Ultimately, I argue that Elton John's music is enjoyable and incites emotion because of violation or validation of harmonic and melodic expectations, and because of emotionally laden bodily and vocal gestures perceived by the listener.