Addicted to Music - The chill is real

Why do we love Music?
Does it help get you through the day?
Why can it feel like it's lifting your mood?

image source

Sweet tune

Music is loved by all. Instruments found on our earth have been dated as far back as 67,000 years, with the flute pictured below being one of the first on record. Of course, the human voice was likely the first musical 'instrument' and is often used today as a percussion and other components in creating a piece of music.

The tune-age

image source

Be it a lyric or the first notes of a record, music can instigate a number of seemingly involuntary and positive responses:

• Perhaps you start singing and surprise yourself with how much you can remember

• Maybe the tune will provoke you to tap your feet or get up and dance

• Or, even more interestingly, and the focus of this blog, a chilling sensation moving up your spine and making the hairs on your arms and neck stand on end

"Spine-tinglingly" good

The chills that arrive at various moments could be called the shivers, goosebumps, tingles, and officially, 'frisson'. If you have had this reaction to music then the description is easily recognized; a wave or surge of good feelings rise up through your spine, your head tilts back, and the hairs on your arms and neck stand to attention. The experience seems involuntary and uncontrollable. What is happening here?!

The Brain bit

Researching into these musical 'chills', I found that a neuroscientist named Valarie Salimpoor from Canada had produced a paper in which she had examined the brain's responses during these magical musical moments. Seemingly, the musical chill can coincide with a singer's entry vocal or a harmony introduction, at any part of the song and whenever the listener recognizes the song they 'love'.

In the experiment, the subject provided their own ‘chill music’ and the selections ranged from techno to classical, the categorization being unimportant with the requirement being only what floats the individual's boat.

During the tests, research uncovered activation of a part of the brain named the dopaminergic reward pathway. Just prior to and during the 'moment of chill', this pathway was flooded with dopamine, a brain-pleasing neurotransmitter associated with addiction and motivation. Dopamine is present during elements of survival, like food and sex, and recreational drugs also play around with this neurotransmitter.

Dopaminergic Pathways

Source

Sex, drugs, and Rock ‘n’ Roll it is then!

Personal Experiences

Thinking into the past as far as i can remember, either listening to music at home, exercising, or at work, I've been lucky enough to have enjoyed this chilling experience many times, and it always brings with it an awesome feeling of being happy and alive. I would say it is related to some very joyful times in my life such as experiencing and reliving the moments of a sky dive on the day that it happened; England scoring a goal in a big match (not too often there then!); 'deja vu' moments of 'what the hell just happened there? That was creepy/cool/awesome!' All these instances cause that chilling feeling, but when this occurs due to music, the sensation also provides a euphoric feeling.

With regards to particular songs, I can recall quite a few tracks I heard for the first time in my early youth and throughout my teenage years which have had an impact on me. In fact, I would say that it is these songs that are the most likely to bring with them the musical chills. However, on thinking about what songs get my arm hairs up, the records were not strictly limited to my teenage years and earlier.

Records that do it for me

Song: Radiohead - Reckoner
First heard: 2007 (age 28)
Chills: 3:17 - Thom Yorkes voice bringing the track back from a slow point

This track is on the In Rainbows album released in 2007. When I look back on that period, I remember feeling down and quite helpless, following a relationship breakup and reduced access to my very young daughter.

---

Record: John Lennon - Beautiful Boy (Darling Boy).
First heard: 1980-1981 (aged 2/3)
Chills: 0.12

Close your eyes,
Have no fear,
The monster's gone,
He's on the run
And your daddy's here..

Apparently, this song was played and sang to me as a child. I don't specifically remember my late father doing this but there is something about this track that my brain loves deeply.

---

Tune: Oasis - Sad song
First heard: 1995 (aged 16)
Chills: 0.56

Where we're living in this town,
The sun is coming up and it's going down,
But it's all just the same at the end of the day...

I don't have any explanation for this one, I have just always loved the simplicity of the lyrics.

---

Tune: Paul Oakenfold - Energy 52 cafe del mar
First heard: 2000
Chills: 4:31

That single long note appears and ahhhhhhhhhhhhh, start of the build back up again.

---

Summary

This is far from an exhaustive list and I will perhaps, in the future, add additional blogs about the tracks that provide the chill. These songs seem to have been present in my life during strong emotional phases, both happy and sad and this could be a reason as to why my heart and mind has bonded with them in such a way that they create a physical reaction.

For now though, I'd like to hear about the music that does it for you. Please comment with your chilling experiences below and if you can remember the time you first heard the track, how old you were, and at what point in the song the chills hit, this would all be great information to share.

Thanks for reading, and listening today!

Asher