frisson (and music that gives us the chills)

[underused]

frisson
a sudden strong feeling of excitement or fear; a thrill

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Frisson is an old word, but people are talking about it in a new(ish) context: musical frisson.

Researchers at The Montreal Neurological Institute and Hospital determined that “even the anticipation of pleasurable music induces dopamine release” resulting in a galvanic skin response (the chills). It's the same kind of thrill we get from food, drugs, and sex.

According to neuroscientist Dr. Robert Zatorre:

“This is the first demonstration that an abstract reward such as music can lead to dopamine release. Abstract rewards are largely cognitive in nature, and this study paves the way for future work to examine non-tangible rewards that humans consider rewarding for complex reasons."

In other words, they want to figure out why our brains are rewarding us for something not (yet) demonstrably tied to survival.

Not everyone experiences musically-induced frisson, but studies suggest it’s more than half of us. There's even a Reddit group for people to share their most shiver-worthy recordings.

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Have you felt musical frisson? When?
Is there a song or recording that gives you a charge?

Comments

[star_fish]

Allll the time, it's one of the main reasons I like listening to music. Sometimes it's whole songs, but quite often it's some specific part. For example, guaranteed frisson-inducers for me are:

Around 2:40
Around 2:40 (amusing coincidence)
Beginning
Around 3:00

I also had no idea some people get that from eating food, haha ^^'

[underused]

Whoa, thank you for linking! After reading/hearing about "musical" frisson, I learned it's often just about one small passage or piece of a song. The points you chose fall right into line with the research, in that frisson tends to come with anticipation. Very cool.

In that fourth track at the 3 min mark, I think I got chills, too. Those vocals are amazing. (Also the bass in the second track--damn.)

[underused]

The first time I heard Baba O'Riley with headphones, the intro (about the whole first minute) gave me a full body shock. I'd heard the song a million times before, but never in headphones. It was a whole brand new thing.

Weirdly, there's also a little piece of Johnny Mercer's recording of Glow Worm. Mercer's voice is kickass all the time, but there's something about the way he sings the lines "You got a cute vest-pocket Mazda / which you can make both slow or 'fazda'" (at the 2:25 mark) that makes me positively light-headed.

[firemarshallwilly]

owo Did someone say frisson? Funny cuz I was just listening to a song that gave me that. Just listen to the opening of this song:

Falconer - Griftefrid

(it's power metal :D)

Like starfish said (they brought me here), I usually get frisson from a specific part... but I prefer entire songs though. So, here are my frisson-inducers by genre:

Heavy Metal: Running Wild - Little Big Horn Who knew that The Girl I Left Behind Me makes for an excellent riff?


Power Metal: Firewind - The Fire and The Fury Just listen to it, man.

Thrash Metal: Destruction - Thrash 'til Death. The riffs do it for me.

Folk Metal: Skyclad - The Parliament of Fools. Here, it's the vocals. Kind of sad but also determined.

And, last but not least:

Death Metal:

Vader - Come and See My Sacrifice. 1:20 onwards is friggin' glorious; the riffs, the drumming, the vocals...

Cannibal Corpse - Death Walking Terror. It's just... powerful, y'know?

Blood Red Throne - Primitive Killing Machine. Currently my favourite death metal group. I just love the groovyness.

Those are just some of my favs. Metal is pretty great.


EDIT: FFS HOW TO LINk?????

[underused]

Hey - thanks for joining in! Today is going to be the day I learn about a bunch of new music.

I listened to Falconer, Running Wild, Firewind, and (bc how could I resist) Cannibal Corpse. (Of the ones I chose, the Firewind track was my favourite.) I (almost) never listen to metal, but I def agree it's chill-worthy. Listening to it feels almost symphonic--it's so overwhelming there's no room for anything else.

My (partial) Frisson Playlist; more may follow...

[full_metal_ox]

"Love, Space, Time" by Dayton, Ohio's extremely intermittent (and now defunct) The American Static; my frisson points occur upon each use of the word "photograph" and the following tense string flourish, and at the final "take me where we long to be, now!" at 3:28-3:32.

Theme from the classic anime Space Pirate Captain Harlock; frisson points fall at the line "ore no uta" from :39-:41, the bridge from 1:12-1:28, and the orchestral echo of the vocal melody--as if signalling a narrative "Aye-aye, Captain!" to Harlock!--at 2:20-2:27.

Theme/leitmotif from the old-school Kung Fu film Five Shaolin Masters (5:05-6:02--at which point it's abruptly cut off by the villains' (equally iconic) growling bass piano leitmotif.); Unfortunately, the only clip I was able to find was (A) dubbed in German, (B) flopped and defaced for copyright reasons, and (C) sped up. Even more unfortunately, I've been unable to find the theme song a la carte for downloading; the melancholy majesty of the spaghetti-westernesque score is a lot of what makes the archetypal force of the movie.

Re: My (partial) Frisson Playlist; more may follow...

[underused]

Ooh, this was another great set. The vocals in the first track are beautiful. (Can I say Bowie-esque? I never want to make comparisons, just in case, but I certainly mean it in a good way.) The second spot you marked for SPCH was kinda perfect. The Five Shaolin Masters theme felt (to me) like the beginning of something. Thanks for linking all these!

Re: My (partial) Frisson Playlist; more may follow...

[full_metal_ox]

I hadn't time to sift through the entire movie to find an optimum clip; as a leitmotif, of course the passage gains force with repetition. Some better samples occur at 14:27-15:15 (one of the heroes recognizes a fellow resistance member, who leads him to a rebel hideout) and 20:09-21:16 (the hero in question learns that the comrade who held off the bad guy and saved his life died in the effort.)

It comes to fruition, waxing into a triumphal fanfare, at 1:27:01-end, as the three surviving heroes carry off their fallen and rebels rally from all quarters to join their cause.

I realize it’s three-and-a-half years after the fact...

[full_metal_ox]

...but I finally located and identified the full theme from Five Shaolin Masters: the title is “Omertà”, from Gianni Oddi’s 1974 album Style. The main frisson point is the tense shudder of strings at about 0:50-0:55.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=7MZohtjtGD8

(Old-school Kung Fu flicks shamelessly snagged soundtrack material from whatever happened to be lying around; for example, a lot of Godzilla and spaghetti-Western music got repurposed in Shaw Brothers’ films. At the risk of more than you really cared to know about the subject:

http://www.kungfumagazine.com/forum/archive/index.php/t-63823.html)

[firemarshallwilly]

Glad you enjoyed it!

[mandralyne]

Popiholla has always given me chills. Everyone always tells me to listen to the original Hopipolla by Sigur Ros but it just doesn't give me the same feeling

[underused]

I'd def not heard this before (or the Sigur Ros). It has that same building-suspense/rising feeling I heard in the other songs people posted. I wouldn't never have thought to compare them, but they all have elements in common. It's very cool.

[merikuru]

Aah. I am a being made of frisson, I swear. There are so many songs that send Le Shivers all up and down my spine.

This is one of my favorites. His voice... *dreamy sigh*

Also this.

[underused]

The intro of the first track made me so happy!

But whoa that hymn--they really chose the location well for the acoustics.

amidthestars, if you stop by, def listen to merikuru's second link. I think you might love it.

[merikuru]

Heyr Himnasmiður is one of my favorite hymns, not gonna lie. So beautiful. <3

[full_metal_ox]

Those guys in the train station sound as if they're blessing the paladins on the brink of the climactic boss battle.

[merikuru]

Hahah! They do!

[amidthestars]

OH WOW, yes. This is all of my favourite musical things: acapella hymns, beautiful harmonies, big, echo-y spaces.

Also, I looked up the English translation of this, and it made me tear up a little:

"Drive out, O king of suns,
generous and great,
every human sorrow
from the city of the heart."

[underused]

Do I know you or what? ☺