Violations of Musical Expectancy

Goosebumps…

(pictured: hair on a human’s arm standing up with visible goosebumps and a caption that says “WHEN THE MUSIC IS GOOD”)

For animals, this is a natural fear response to raise the body’s hair to appear larger to scare off predators or even increase the amount of air trapped in the fur to make it more insulating.

For humans, these little bumps on our skin are not necessary for our survival anymore but we still get them when we feel strong emotions like fear, euphoria, and arousal ~

For me, I really was fascinated by goosebumps and chills that were caused by music

I spent a few years in college trying to test when I’d get goosebumps. It was a really good feeling that sent shivers all over like waves over my body. So naturally, I really wanted to recreate that on demand.

I came up with some initial results that were pretty fascinating.

1. Music had to pretty loud relative to everything else. (Such as fairly loud music in a quiet setting, and very loud music in gatherings — concerts do this very well, but bars don’t always). Hearing someone sing live while hitting some really high-frequency notes also triggers it.
2. You have to be sober. No alcohol. No other stuff ;) This one was unexpected but understandable.
3. You cannot be expecting it. You can’t just magically play a song that caused it before again hoping it’ll just happen. It has to be unexpected.

This last one was the most disappointing, yet coolest discovery. I realized that you couldn’t just get these music-bumps whenever you wanted. It really had to be unexpected and shocking for you to feel them. But … say you were to play a song that you had never heard of… you are setting yourself up well to be surprised … by something you have zero expectations for … hmmm….

My research concluded there, and I was proud of it. It was a fun exploration that helped me come closer to music and its wonderful effect on people.

However, a few years later a friend of mine would tell me that there’s actually a formal term for this feeling and shared an amazing Wikipedia article with me. (Yes it’s a Wikipedia article, sue me)

Frisson.

Also known as aesthetic chills or musical chills, frisson is a psycho-physio-logical response to rewarding auditory and/or visual stimuli that often induces an affective state, and skin tingling/chills, sometimes with goosebumps and pupil dilation.

I went on to read further and the article basically confirmed everything I had found in my research. I was so intrigued that my research was correct and it was a real thing!

I wanted to share the coolest phrasing of the cause of this feeling:

VIOLATIONS OF MUSICAL EXPECTANCY

Isn’t that such a dope way to put it? Rhythmic, dynamic, harmonic, and/or melodic violations of a person’s explicit or implicit expectations are a prerequisite to achieving frisson.

Loud, or very high or low frequency, or quickly varying sounds (unexpected harmonies, moments of modulation, melodic appoggiaturas [on-beat grace notes before melody] all arouse the autonomic nervous system which is strongly correlated with frisson!

I renamed my playlist of songs that have been known to cause frisson for me to “violations of musical expectancy”. Feel free to check out the playlist below and let me know if you experience this wonderful feeling from any of these songs or can suggest any other songs that have had this impact on you!

A playlist of all the songs that have caused me frisson in the past

I also wanted to share some of the other notable parts of this that added onto my initial research:

1. It’s of short duration, usually lasting only a few seconds
2. It’s usually caused by loud passages of music
3. A tingling/chills sensation usually felt on the skin across the lower back, shoulders, neck, and arms in a series of “waves” moving up the back in rapid succession
4. Pupil dilation is also really common with goosebumps (This one was hard to confirm since I never was able to look into a mirror during testing)
5. The feeling was dampened under the administration of naloxone — a medicine used to block the effects of opioids. (I guessed it was just not being sober, but maybe that is just me?)
6. Frisson may be enhanced by the amplitude of music and by cooler temperatures

Thanks for coming to my TED talk! Love to chat more about it ~

Sources:

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goose_bumps
2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frisson