Why listening to music gives you goosebumps
With the right music and a matching environment, it can quickly happen that feelings and emotions take hold of you and give you goosebumps. This impulse from our brain happens completely unexpectedly.
Scientists have been trying to explain what music triggers in us for a long time. One thing is clear: goosebumps are an acoustic reflex that has developed during the evolution of humans.
Goosebumps: the emotional impact of notes
When we listen to music, the sound follows a single pathway: it enters through the ear and inner ear, then hits the auditory nerve and goes directly to the brain, which converts the signals into sounds.
As soon as music is heard, the brain begins to recognize the emotional meaning of the acoustic signals. Even if a person hears only the smallest musical fragments, they are able to identify moods and even entire songs. Musical characteristics such as tempo, rhythm and harmony influence the heartbeat, blood pressure and breathing rate. Depending on the style, the muscle tension of the person changes.
Meanwhile, researchers also want to have explored another influential factor that is said to be significantly involved in the high emotional impact of music on our body – the intellect.
A nerve reaction that ultimately manifests itself in goosebumps cannot be forcefully induced. Rather, you need a strong imagination and the ability to engage cognitively with the music. It helps a lot to be able to anticipate melodies, beats or certain chord progressions, for example, in order to feel the pleasant shiver that spreads over your body.
A timeless classic that almost always works for us: In Phil Collins' “In The Air Tonight,” it's the dramatic build-up that results in a massive drum storm after more than half of the song, which is a real surprise.
Music stimulates the limbic system
Responsible for our feelings is the part of the brain called the limbic system. Often, people associate emotional events with music, and these feelings are then recalled when a piece of music is heard again. Depending on the type and intensity of these feelings, the listener may experience goosebumps.
Influences that can also be considered in terms of the production of emotional music are moments of surprise: unexpected turns in the melody, increases in volume or instrumentation – when we listen to music, our brain is constantly busy making predictions and expectations about the likely course of a piece. We like it when our expectations are fulfilled – but we also like to be surprised by something new.
Unfortunately, a universal recipe for that pleasant tingling sensation has not yet been discovered. The safest means of evoking deep emotional responses in the listener is considered to be the voice or instruments that have a similar, vocal sound. The saxophone, violin, or cello are good candidates for the goosebump moment. Once a song has made it this far, it will certainly not be forgotten so quickly.
The joy of understanding
In the constant search for meaning, our brain always follows its natural need to understand everything around us. When we understand musical structures in a song, grasp the textual messages that the musician wants to convey, we experience positive feelings and our body feels a kind of reward, which can also express itself in the form of goosebumps. Scientists around the world are still looking for a way to create “chills”, as the effect of goosebumps is known.
Many research subjects were played a variety of songs – some actually responded to music passages that were associated with emotionally stirring experiences. However, the few similar attributes in the music were mostly the already known ones: ascending melodies, passages with high volume, and surprise effects. These are things that you could easily implement in your own productions as well.