What Does “In The Groove” Mean?
While being “in the groove” is mostly credited to “Performing very well” or “In a state of mind or mood conductive to playing music well”, and was used by jazz musicians as early as 1920, I believe the phrase actually comes from the stylus or needle of a record being “in the groove”.
While the common “record” that we know today was introduced as the Edison Blue Amberol Record in 1912, the first phonograph was invented by Thomas Edison on July 18th, 1877. Previous to that, a device utilizing a vibrating pen to graphically represent sound on discs of paper, known as a phonautograph, was built by Edouard-Leon Scott of France in 1857.
The theory, in principal, is that the stylus or needle stays in the groove of the record to reproduce sound, what it was designed to do. When bumped, the needle will often come out of the groove, causing disruption, chaos, and often the loss of a good time. Thus, people look for the “groove” to get back to a normal, productive state of mind.