Some factors in the success of Kygo’s version relative to Houston’s cover include advanced technology and globalization. New technologies and musical development, such as streaming services, allow for consumers to easily access music from anywhere in the world. Therefore, Kygo’s audience was far more widespread than that of Whitney Houston’s.
One explanation for Kygo’s EDM version being such a hit could be the experience that EDM brings to the listener on the physical level. A study conducted by Solberg and Dibben found a connection between the Skin Conductance Response (SCR), a means commonly used to assess the intensity of emotion experienced in music, and the drop section of an EDM track’s “break routine.” A break routine is characterized by the “breakdown, build-up, and drop” of an EDM track, and the drop happens when the beat is “dropped” back into the groove of the track after a buildup in pitch and volume. Moreover, Solberg and Dibben found that this SCR response was higher in the drop section of an EDM track than any other section. Thus, Kygo’s choice to combine a song from the R&B genre that was not able to make use of the removal and dropping of the beat presented an experience for the listener that could connect to them further at the physical level. In the video below, the physical connection is visible with the crowd of people dancing and jumping around at the beat drop.
A live performance of Kygo’s “Higher Love”