There’s good music, and there’s music that makes you feel like you’re listening to God’s playlist. We’ve all had these moments, where we’re listening to a song and a slow wave of shivers, chills, or goosebumps passes over us.
You can call them frissons. Like a sexual orgasm, a frisson is an intense physiological response, but instead of it being about what feels good, it’s about what sounds good.
I recently got into this Korean boy band called BTS, and a song of theirs that never fails to give me chills is “I NEED U”. I can tell you what I like about the song: I’m a fan of rap (they have three rappers, and with distinct voices), especially when it’s in contrast with a beautiful instrumental. Their vocal line is talented, and they have two members who can hit high falsetto notes like it’s nobody’s business. And it’s catchy.
But I can say the same about plenty of their other songs. They have the same rappers, the same vocalists, and great instrumentals. So what’s so special about “I NEED U”? And what exactly causes these chills?
Why We Feel Frissons
The higher the intensity of a frisson, the higher the activity in the following areas of the brain:
paralimbic areas (long-term memory, emotion, reward)
motor areas (movement, conditioned response)
areas associated with the autonomic nervous system (involuntary and fight-or-flight responses)
When activated together, these regions are probably why we experience strong emotional and physiological responses to good music.
What Makes Music “Good Enough” to Elicit Frissons
A lot of studies show that frisson is often caused by sudden dynamic leaps in music. Mostly, it’s when the music goes from soft to loud, or sometimes from loud to extremely soft. This can explain why EDM is such a pleasure, what with its intense buildups immediately followed by dramatic drops. (I think that, in general, we love highly contrasting stimuli, whether they’re visual, auditory, etc.)
Another catalyst to frisson can be the anticipation of the leap. There’s a certain area in one of the brain’s reward systems, the caudate, that activates and transmits dopamine in those moments leading to the peak of the song. FYI, dopamine is one of those feel-good neurotransmitters, hence its role in reward and motivation. The second area involved in this process is the nucleus accumbens, which is involved during the release right after the climax.
From 3:34, the bridge starts building up to the expected peak... and then it stops (3:59). You’re given five seconds of silence before the music resumes at a soft, low point and then again goes into a crescendo to finally, finally hit the climactic, final chorus (4:31). That’s when I get the chills.
Somewhere between 3:34 and 4:31, the caudate is more active than usual, especially as it gets closer to the chorus. From 4:31 onwards, it’s the nucleus accumbens’ turn to be flushed with dopamine.
That’s why “I NEED U” is so great. It’s basically a case of delayed gratification, made even more compelling by the unexpected five-second silence. The dopamine rush throughout the process serves as a reward and encouragement to listen and come back to it, because it’s such a goddamn pleasure. And since it’s human to seek pleasure, I’ll keep craving and playing this stupid song until I get sick of it.
Article by Val Borja
Reference
Harrison, L. & Loui, P. (2014). Thrills, chills, frissons, and skin orgasms: Toward an integrative model of transcendent psychophysiological experiences in music. Frontiers in Psychology, 5. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2014.00790
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