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Listening to songs can cause a physiological response known as “frisson”

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Re: Listening to songs can cause a physiological response known as “frisson”

#121

Post by whartung »

nickjj wrote: post #97

Hmm, I spot checked a bunch of songs in the list and only listened to songs I haven't heard of and I didn't get goosebumps or any hint of frission once. But I get goosebumps / etc. all the time when I listen to music I like, even songs I've listened to 50 times. Is it really considered "scientifically proven" at that point? It sounds more like "if you like music, you'll probably get goosebumps when you listen to spec…

I'm not saying it can't happen organically with an unheard song, I'm sure it can. But, sticking with the Dream Theater thread, I KNOW these events happen in their songs, I know where they'll happen, I know when they'll happen, and even give all that, they're still exciting when they do.

A musician friend of mine said that a key aspect of music is "surprise", and, obviously surprise can happen anywhere and everywhere. But the downside of surprise is that it can only happen once.

At Knott's Berry Farm, they have a log ride. Very nice log ride, lots of thematic elements scattered about. It also has a dark section, everything is blacked out. (Spoiler) In the middle of the dark section is a drop, and it's very surprising.

Ride on it again, though, and it's thrilling. You know it's there. You know it's coming, but it's a thrill nonetheless. How many times have you been on a roller coaster and said something like "Here it comes!".

Dream Theaters music, for me, is filled with these moments. When I first listen to a new DT album, inevitably, I won't like it. It takes me a solid 10 times to get in to its "groove", to find it's surprises. In the end, it grabs hold of me and I look forward to those "moments".

And, to do so, I'll listen to the whole song. I won't skip to "just that moment", because it's not the same. I'll listen to the whole 20 minute song to get to the moment at the end, "journey is the reward" kind of thing. You can't reduce a 20m song to those few crescendo moments.

Re: Listening to songs can cause a physiological response known as “frisson”

#122

Post by CoastalCoder »

nostrademons wrote: post #22

“Expectancy violations (e.g., harmonic, rhythmic, and/or melodic violations) are strongly correlated to the onset of musical frisson, such that some level of violated expectation may be a prerequisite.” Interesting. The Spotify playlist didn't do much for me, but when I think of a couple moments in songs that always give me chills, they all feature that pattern: Nightwish, Ghost Love Score , Wacken 2013 @ 9:22, affec…

I'm wondering if this counts as fission: East Village Opera Company, "When I am Laid in Earth Redux", the key shift(?) at 2:22.

Re: Listening to songs can cause a physiological response known as “frisson”

#123

Post by MacsHeadroom »

hunter2_ wrote: post #63
gfd wrote: post #56

I used to love the subreddit https://www.reddit.com/r/Frisson/top/?sort=top&t=all which is now kind of inactive. Surprisingly to me, music didn't work as well as images/text for inducing frisson. For example I reread this piece very often: https://i.imgur.com/jrlpeme.jpg

Conscience of a Hacker [0] does it for me. [0] http://phrack.org/issues/7/3.html

Almost every line of this does it for me, every time.

Re: Listening to songs can cause a physiological response known as “frisson”

#124

Post by isaacimagine »

CoastalCoder wrote: post #122
nostrademons wrote: post #22

“Expectancy violations (e.g., harmonic, rhythmic, and/or melodic violations) are strongly correlated to the onset of musical frisson, such that some level of violated expectation may be a prerequisite.” Interesting. The Spotify playlist didn't do much for me, but when I think of a couple moments in songs that always give me chills, they all feature that pattern: Nightwish, Ghost Love Score , Wacken 2013 @ 9:22, affec…

I'm wondering if this counts as fission: East Village Opera Company, "When I am Laid in Earth Redux", the key shift(?) at 2:22.

Afaict, frission isn't a quality of music itself, but rather a chill-like response you may have while listening to certain songs. If you get frission while you listen to a song, then yes, it counts as frission to you.

Edit: but yes, this key shift is rather beautiful and unexpected.

Re: Listening to songs can cause a physiological response known as “frisson”

#125

Post by oneepic »

I think certain songs provoke an increased response from me, after I've listened to them a few times already. For example, Warning's "Watching From A Distance" [0] (c/w metal with sad themes) gives me that feeling around 2min 15sec when the main riff drops. But that didn't happen until after I heard it a few times.

[0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RGqUo7a7J_I

Re: Listening to songs can cause a physiological response known as “frisson”

#126

Post by i_love_music »

nostrademons wrote: post #22

“Expectancy violations (e.g., harmonic, rhythmic, and/or melodic violations) are strongly correlated to the onset of musical frisson, such that some level of violated expectation may be a prerequisite.” Interesting. The Spotify playlist didn't do much for me, but when I think of a couple moments in songs that always give me chills, they all feature that pattern: Nightwish, Ghost Love Score , Wacken 2013 @ 9:22, affec…

+1 for Dream Theatre. Progressive metal is my number one source of Frisson. Brutal, heavy lows followed by soaring, melodic highs really does it for me.

Before I learned of the name frisson, I always thought it was an adrenaline response.

Re: Listening to songs can cause a physiological response known as “frisson”

#127

Post by cainxinth »

nostrademons wrote: post #22

“Expectancy violations (e.g., harmonic, rhythmic, and/or melodic violations) are strongly correlated to the onset of musical frisson, such that some level of violated expectation may be a prerequisite.” Interesting. The Spotify playlist didn't do much for me, but when I think of a couple moments in songs that always give me chills, they all feature that pattern: Nightwish, Ghost Love Score , Wacken 2013 @ 9:22, affec…

I'm not that into metal bands, but I figured I'd give your examples a listen. At first I didn't think much of it, but right at 9:22 when she hits that note... frisson!

Re: Listening to songs can cause a physiological response known as “frisson”

#128

Post by student2k »

I do find myself crying alone when get deep into a song I like, it is not sadness, not happy Ness , but overload of powerfull emotion I can describe, could happen with techno, rap, or other music style. I didn't feel this article was referring to the same thing.

Re: Listening to songs can cause a physiological response known as “frisson”

#129

Post by corey_moncure »

nostrademons wrote: post #22

“Expectancy violations (e.g., harmonic, rhythmic, and/or melodic violations) are strongly correlated to the onset of musical frisson, such that some level of violated expectation may be a prerequisite.” Interesting. The Spotify playlist didn't do much for me, but when I think of a couple moments in songs that always give me chills, they all feature that pattern: Nightwish, Ghost Love Score , Wacken 2013 @ 9:22, affec…

I'll reply with the best examples I know. It's likely that this phenomenon is very personal, though.

Carlo Gesualdo, Tenebrae Responsories. Three nights full of "Expectancy violations", unparalleled word painting, cross relations... definitely do reference the text in translation, because the word painting is a huge part of the beauty of the work.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OtYMrQjbSak (1 of 27)

Bruckner, 4th symphony, finale. https://youtu.be/o0g82i784bw?t=4440

Bruckner, 8th symphony, finale. https://youtu.be/elVHvTrEM34?t=5610

The 8th symphony is titanic, but worth it if you can set aside 2 hours. I like Celibidache's recordings best.

Re: Listening to songs can cause a physiological response known as “frisson”

#130

Post by nickjj »

whartung wrote: post #121
nickjj wrote: post #97

Hmm, I spot checked a bunch of songs in the list and only listened to songs I haven't heard of and I didn't get goosebumps or any hint of frission once. But I get goosebumps / etc. all the time when I listen to music I like, even songs I've listened to 50 times. Is it really considered "scientifically proven" at that point? It sounds more like "if you like music, you'll probably get goosebumps when you listen to spec…

I'm not saying it can't happen organically with an unheard song, I'm sure it can. But, sticking with the Dream Theater thread, I KNOW these events happen in their songs, I know where they'll happen, I know when they'll happen, and even give all that, they're still exciting when they do. A musician friend of mine said that a key aspect of music is "surprise", and, obviously surprise can happen anywhere and everywhere.…

Surprise is a decoupled feeling from enjoyment I think. Having a good surprise in music is great because you think "wow, I can't believe that was so good" but then you can enjoy it 100 more times over the next 5 years.

I can like a song a lot the first time I hear it and often times that is the basis on whether or not I'll listen to it again or semi-routinely.

I really do think "likeness" plays a major role in the frission itself. I listened to a couple of tracks in the article's list multiple times since my original reply and felt nothing. I can appreciate the workmanship that went into creating it but it didn't spark anything and I'll likely never be inclined to listen to them again.

Music is an extremely complex subject, there's so many variables that go into filtering what you like and dislike. There's also a huge amount of things that go into bucketing a track into "this is basically torture" to "I'm embarrassed to listen to this alone" to "acceptable background noise" to "I would be upset if I could never listen to this again".

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