Do you ever get goose bumps when listening to music?
There are many informal benchmarks musicians look to when putting together a track to try to determine its quality. Does it make your 2-year-old dance? Does the chorus stick in your head long after you’ve hit the stop button? Does it bring a tear to your eye or a smile to your face, make you want to hit the gym or bang your head? Does it inspire you to tilt your bucket seat back, crank your subwoofers and roll slowly through the neighborhood? Though these litmus tests are unscientific, they tend to be fairly reliable at an almost universal level – at least across your intended audience.
But there’s one listener response to music that’s almost impossible to predict – and as precious as it is elusive: the chill factor. You can’t really plant the chill factor in music because it’s inherently a personal experience. Where lightning may strike some as Celine Dion holds a high note for a seemingly inhuman amount of time, the goose bumps will come to another when they hear Radiohead’s Jonny Greenwood testing his distortion pedal before the chorus of “Creep.”
For me, there’s a moment in Nirvana’s “Sliver,” aka “Grandma Take Me Home,” that never fails to raise goose bumps and elicit a primal emotion: as Kurt Cobain finishes the line, “I woke up in my mothers aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaarms.” He ravages his throat as he fights to hold on to the word “arms,” which is a perfect metaphor. It’s as though he packs every iota of pain he ever felt in his life into that word – and the juxtaposition of that innocent moment from his childhood, forever lost, against his man-sized hurt is almost unbearable. No matter how many times I hear that song, the chill comes.
Do you experience the “chill factor” when listening to certain songs?
Submitted by BakerBlog on February 8, 2008 - 12:38pm.
For me it's the song "Bitter Sweet Symphony" by The Verve. It starts off so repetitive, but then "BAM!" the full symphony kicks in and it's beautiful and perfect in dynamics and timing. Whenever I hear that song - whatever mood I'm in, where ever I'm at - I will get goosebumps - it's inevitable.
Submitted by jennyjean4 on February 8, 2008 - 1:25pm.
In Sinead O'Conner's song "Black Boys on Mopeds" there's a verse that goes... In her arms she holds three cold babies
And the first word that they learned was "please"
and on the word please her voice goes up about an octave and she sings that word so quietly and emotionally that I get chills every time.
Submitted by writers bloc on February 8, 2008 - 3:55pm.
And when her voice cracks slightly on the word "love" in the line in the chorus "I love my boy, and that's why I'm leaving" ... that's about as good as emotive vocal delivery gets.
Submitted by writers bloc on February 8, 2008 - 3:52pm.
Definitely. When the chord progression inverts and the refrain,"For a minute there, I lost myself" begins and continues to build to the end ... that's just magic.
Submitted by geetar_boy on February 8, 2008 - 3:17pm.
Anyone my age has heard it 8 billion times, but the moment Dave
Grohl's mammoth bass drum/snare abuse enters on the intro to "Smells Like Teen Spirit" I still chill.
What I like about this particular "chill" moment is that is music only...no lyrics. How and why orchestrated noise can do that...it's one of the things I LOVE so much about music. It's a mysterious force.
Submitted by writers bloc on February 8, 2008 - 3:48pm.
Sweet ... I still remember where I was the first time I heard that roaring intro. I was a janitor (kind of ironic in retrospect, considering the video) mopping the kitchen at the St. Paul Student Center the first time I heard "Smells Like Teen Spirit." I was hearing it on a tinny-sounding mono radio from the '60s, and it still sounded awesome. And like the above post, I was hypnotized before the vocals even arrived on the scene.
Submitted by geetar_boy on February 8, 2008 - 4:53pm.
I thought of another great bone chiller moment. This one does hinge on the lyrics and the vocal delivery.
Pearl Jam played MTV's "Unplugged" in March of '92. For many of us "X'ers" it was our first exposure to Pearl Jam's explosive live performances. I have been lucky enough to see them on 3 occasions....but, anyway there is a moment toward the end of the song "Black"...Vedder is pleading, "we...we should be together...together...", repeating it several times mantra sytle.
When you hear it, you know that this man knows LOVE and the heartache of losing it. It's such a cathartic and personal moment.
I haven't heard that performance in years, but am getting the chills as I write about it.
MTV never released the Pearl Jam performance, but there are bootlegs of it to be found.
Submitted by jennyjean4 on February 11, 2008 - 11:39am.
At the Pearl Jam concert, I remember the song "Not For You" giving me chills. He seemed so angry and emotional during the performance and it just pushed that song over the top for me.
Submitted by jennyjean4 on February 11, 2008 - 11:50am.
The Pixies Reunion show at the Fine Line had many goosebump inducing moments, but my favorite was "Where is My Mind". At the end of the song, the whole crowd was singing the oo-oo ooo's and it was just amazing to be there.
Submitted by Melissa Gilman on February 19, 2008 - 2:04pm.
Hem's "Rabbit Songs" album puts me in a contemplative place. "When I Was Drinking" is really gorgeous and evocative: "When I was drinking, when I was with you/living it up when the rent was due/with nothing and no one to live up to." I also adore "Half Acre." Does it matter to me that Liberty Mutual used the song in a commercial? Nah. I'd rather have everyone experience that melancholic and nostalgic feeling the song evokes in me.
Submitted by Melissa Gilman on March 6, 2008 - 10:29am.
"Maybe the sun will shine today/The clouds will blow away/Maybe I won’t feel so afraid/I will try to understand/Either way." I'm not very good at describing what music sounds like. But there's something about the opening chords of "Either Way" by Wilco and the carefully hopeful sound of Jeff Tweedy's voice that gives me emotional goosebumps.
Submitted by carpet cleaners (not verified) on September 12, 2008 - 7:15am.
All the time. Sometimes I can't even put my finger on why I like that song so much, all I know is that it gives me those goosebumps. It's a pretty strange reaction, I always thought.
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For me it's the song "Bitter
For me it's the song "Bitter Sweet Symphony" by The Verve. It starts off so repetitive, but then "BAM!" the full symphony kicks in and it's beautiful and perfect in dynamics and timing. Whenever I hear that song - whatever mood I'm in, where ever I'm at - I will get goosebumps - it's inevitable.
In Sinead O'Conner's song
In Sinead O'Conner's song "Black Boys on Mopeds" there's a verse that goes...
In her arms she holds three cold babies
And the first word that they learned was "please"
and on the word please her voice goes up about an octave and she sings that word so quietly and emotionally that I get chills every time.
And when her voice cracks
And when her voice cracks slightly on the word "love" in the line in the chorus "I love my boy, and that's why I'm leaving" ... that's about as good as emotive vocal delivery gets.
I've gotta say that it's
I've gotta say that it's Karma Police by Radiohead. That song has the most haunting lyrics and vocals I have ever heard.
Definitely. When the chord
Definitely. When the chord progression inverts and the refrain,"For a minute there, I lost myself" begins and continues to build to the end ... that's just magic.
Anyone my age has heard it 8
Anyone my age has heard it 8 billion times, but the moment Dave
Grohl's mammoth bass drum/snare abuse enters on the intro to "Smells Like Teen Spirit" I still chill.
What I like about this particular "chill" moment is that is music only...no lyrics. How and why orchestrated noise can do that...it's one of the things I LOVE so much about music. It's a mysterious force.
Sweet ... I still remember
Sweet ... I still remember where I was the first time I heard that roaring intro. I was a janitor (kind of ironic in retrospect, considering the video) mopping the kitchen at the St. Paul Student Center the first time I heard "Smells Like Teen Spirit." I was hearing it on a tinny-sounding mono radio from the '60s, and it still sounded awesome. And like the above post, I was hypnotized before the vocals even arrived on the scene.
I thought of another great
I thought of another great bone chiller moment. This one does hinge on the lyrics and the vocal delivery.
Pearl Jam played MTV's "Unplugged" in March of '92. For many of us "X'ers" it was our first exposure to Pearl Jam's explosive live performances. I have been lucky enough to see them on 3 occasions....but, anyway there is a moment toward the end of the song "Black"...Vedder is pleading, "we...we should be together...together...", repeating it several times mantra sytle.
When you hear it, you know that this man knows LOVE and the heartache of losing it. It's such a cathartic and personal moment.
I haven't heard that performance in years, but am getting the chills as I write about it.
MTV never released the Pearl Jam performance, but there are bootlegs of it to be found.
And I just checked, there are several instances of the performance on youtube - here is one of them
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GzJU87CVC6s
At the Pearl Jam concert, I
At the Pearl Jam concert, I remember the song "Not For You" giving me chills. He seemed so angry and emotional during the performance and it just pushed that song over the top for me.
Another great one is,
Another great one is, "Silent All These Years" by Tori Amos. She knows how to use dynamics along with emotional lyrics for maximum goosebump coverage.
The Pixies Reunion show at
The Pixies Reunion show at the Fine Line had many goosebump inducing moments, but my favorite was "Where is My Mind". At the end of the song, the whole crowd was singing the oo-oo ooo's and it was just amazing to be there.
Hem's "Rabbit Songs" album
Hem's "Rabbit Songs" album puts me in a contemplative place. "When I Was Drinking" is really gorgeous and evocative: "When I was drinking, when I was with you/living it up when the rent was due/with nothing and no one to live up to." I also adore "Half Acre." Does it matter to me that Liberty Mutual used the song in a commercial? Nah. I'd rather have everyone experience that melancholic and nostalgic feeling the song evokes in me.
"Maybe the sun will shine
"Maybe the sun will shine today/The clouds will blow away/Maybe I won’t feel so afraid/I will try to understand/Either way." I'm not very good at describing what music sounds like. But there's something about the opening chords of "Either Way" by Wilco and the carefully hopeful sound of Jeff Tweedy's voice that gives me emotional goosebumps.
All the time. Sometimes I
All the time. Sometimes I can't even put my finger on why I like that song so much, all I know is that it gives me those goosebumps. It's a pretty strange reaction, I always thought.
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