3 ms·

There's also a small percentage of people (maybe <10%) who experience musical frisson [1][2]. I'm one of them. It's a related, but entirely different phenomenon

by bane 8y ago

There's also a small percentage of people (maybe <10%) who experience musical frisson [1][2]. I'm one of them. It's a related, but entirely different phenomenon to ASMR. In some people who experience it, it can be an absolutely overwhelming experience -- like strapping your brain to wings made out of lightning bolts. 1 - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frisson https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frisson 2 - http://theconversation.com/why-do-only-some-people-get-skin-orgasms-from-listening-to-music-59719 http://theconversation.com/why-do-only-some-people-get-skin-...

sizzle 8y ago
How does this compare to an orgasm?
- hnzix 8y ago
  It's maybe a little like the aftershocks of one, or someone nibbling on your ear / nipple. It's an all-over skin tingle, felt especially on the arms and scalp, and a transcendental emotional feeling.
  - bane 8y ago
    > and a transcendental emotional feeling Yeah, the feelings along those lines are really really powerful...and slippery, they slide away as the frisson goes away. :(
- bane 8y ago
  It's a different kind of experience, but definitely clustered in the "feelings of intense pleasure" cluster. I'd say that musical frisson is much more of an emotionally driven feeling that encompasses a much larger part of the body. The intensity ranges all over the place from a small feeling of "nice!" to intense, almost physically disabling, feelings of absolute bliss that have left me weeping like I'd just experienced an overwhelming introduction to an infinite god. But most of the time it happens it's just a crawling feeling of pleasure waves along the upper back, shoulders, back of the neck and arms and a general feeling of happiness and joy. In my case, there's sometimes feelings of "consciousness expansion", and "universal connection", similar to stories I've read from among various drug users or people who've experienced intense religious experiences -- at times I've felt intense focus, explosive creativity, and an "overclocked" sensation like my brain had been turned up to a faster performance ratio -- often for those moments of he frisson I can be intensely productive in creative pursuits. But it falls away as the frisson dissipates. I do not know if this is universal or not, there's pitifully little understanding of this phenomenon and sharing of information. It's a very personal feeling, I don't know that I could ever do it with other people around, and it's tied to very specific passages of music that seem unique to the frissoner. As you can guess it's very addictive, and when I was younger I would spend hours auditioning albums looking for "frissonable" moments I would play over and over again for hours -- usually just a few seconds of some passage that would trigger it. However, pursuing this seems to "use-up" the feeling and after a while the passage would lose its triggering power. If the universe was about to end, and I was allowed to have one final pleasurable experience replayed, selected from any orgasm of frisson I've ever had, I'd definitely pick from among my most intense frissons.
  - esfandia 8y ago
    Do you mind sharing what kind of music triggers this in you? The closest to this for me has been late 60's psychedelic music.
    - bane 8y ago
      Yeah sure, it's a huge range of things that are paradoxically highly specific to a few moments. Certain classical moments are pretty reliable. For example, the first few seconds of the Paganini variation here at around 23:00 minutes. https://youtu.be/c33q87s03h4?t=1375 https://youtu.be/c33q87s03h4?t=1375 except not this recording. I used to have a recording of it I inherited from my great grandfather and it was that specific recording that used to send me off. The opening of Beethoven's 7th - 2nd movement (right until the main theme changes up until about 2:30) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mgHxmAsINDk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mgHxmAsINDk Non-classical: The main theme of this a about 1:07 https://youtu.be/YQJSnMvIKM4?t=68 https://youtu.be/YQJSnMvIKM4?t=68 Certain long notes in this song (kind of hard to explain, but certain notes she holds in sustenato): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5FrWoVC6SZ8&list=PL91bz63WYu5LUieMx1B6U7X17pNdUbVTs&index=16 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5FrWoVC6SZ8&list=PL91bz63WYu... This William Ackerman song has some great passages https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1jles3aPfeI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1jles3aPfeI Some moments in this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iV9Ow4kOA4E https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iV9Ow4kOA4E Asucultation by the Antidote used to be a favorite (it doesn't work anymore :() https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GWs2R6W5vCc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GWs2R6W5vCc Many of the pieces of Solar Fields' Movements album are fantastic but especially this song https://youtu.be/yQjove0nzss?t=1096 https://youtu.be/yQjove0nzss?t=1096 All I Need by Radiohead, especially the main bridge. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-LlfGrP4n6E https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-LlfGrP4n6E Mree's cover of Blood, something with her phrasing https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KMe_5O0mYj0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KMe_5O0mYj0 Several pieces by Steve Reich seem to hack the phenomenon for me and run just underneath the trigger: Six Pianos, Music for 18 Musicians, etc. It can also depend on the context, some of the passages won't "work" without other surrounding song context...like the contrast of the triggering passages and the non-triggering is what sort of does it. There's actually an entire subreddit dedicated to this, but I've not found much in other people's music that kicks it off. https://www.reddit.com/r/frisson https://www.reddit.com/r/frisson It's an entirely different feeling of liking music or finding it pleasurable, for which I believe I'm fairly conventional.
- eyeball 8y ago
  I get this too. I call it eargasm and have a folder full of music files that have triggered it. Anytime I hear a new one I save it in my eargasm playlist.
yesenadam 8y ago
Uh, that second link says studies have reported that from 55% to 86% of people can experience it.
gattr 8y ago
Interesting to know what it's called, thanks. I have a few pieces of music that trigger this for me, up to shivers and tears in the eyes (though not at overwhelming/lightning-bolt levels.) On the other hand, I'm utterly unresponsive to poetry.
- bane 8y ago
  If it makes you feel better, I've never personally run into somebody in real life who's ever admitted to this phenomenon. I think it must be rare enough, and not really spoken of by people who have it. Childhood was very difficult, the few times I tried to explain it to me parents they thought I just found music very beautiful. It's very hard possessing something so great and never connecting with another person who can also experience it. It's like having a completely different sensory organ and describing what colors are to people who are blind from birth. The internet has definitely helped me realize we're not alone with this thing! (I also don't get much out of poetry and pretty much ignore lyrics in music)
  - screye 8y ago
    Is it the feeling of unexplainable unbridled pleasure ? I am reluctant to call it similar to an orgasm , because of the sexual connotations. While my body does not respond in a way similar to an orgasm, the "dopamine rush" (I am being liberal with the term) I get when listening to certain music is very similar. I often have raised hair, tears in my eyes and a general lightheadedness and the biggest grin after such a moment. First time I put it that way. Hoping it doesn't sound too creepy.
    - bane 8y ago
      Not at all, that's the feeling exactly.
- ConceptJunkie 8y ago
  I get this, sometimes much stronger than others, even for the same music. I donate platelets at the Red Cross which takes a couple hours, so they provide DVD players and a selection of movies to choose from while you are hooked up to the apheresis machine. I found they had a DVD of Yes' Symphonic tour from around 2001, and I felt like a real idiot because my eyes were seriously watering up during a lot of that concert. It's not crying, although it may look the same.

by bane 8y ago

sizzle 8y ago

How does this compare to an orgasm?

hnzix 8y ago
It's maybe a little like the aftershocks of one, or someone nibbling on your ear / nipple. It's an all-over skin tingle, felt especially on the arms and scalp, and a transcendental emotional feeling.
- bane 8y ago
  > and a transcendental emotional feeling Yeah, the feelings along those lines are really really powerful...and slippery, they slide away as the frisson goes away. :(
bane 8y ago
It's a different kind of experience, but definitely clustered in the "feelings of intense pleasure" cluster. I'd say that musical frisson is much more of an emotionally driven feeling that encompasses a much larger part of the body. The intensity ranges all over the place from a small feeling of "nice!" to intense, almost physically disabling, feelings of absolute bliss that have left me weeping like I'd just experienced an overwhelming introduction to an infinite god. But most of the time it happens it's just a crawling feeling of pleasure waves along the upper back, shoulders, back of the neck and arms and a general feeling of happiness and joy. In my case, there's sometimes feelings of "consciousness expansion", and "universal connection", similar to stories I've read from among various drug users or people who've experienced intense religious experiences -- at times I've felt intense focus, explosive creativity, and an "overclocked" sensation like my brain had been turned up to a faster performance ratio -- often for those moments of he frisson I can be intensely productive in creative pursuits. But it falls away as the frisson dissipates. I do not know if this is universal or not, there's pitifully little understanding of this phenomenon and sharing of information. It's a very personal feeling, I don't know that I could ever do it with other people around, and it's tied to very specific passages of music that seem unique to the frissoner. As you can guess it's very addictive, and when I was younger I would spend hours auditioning albums looking for "frissonable" moments I would play over and over again for hours -- usually just a few seconds of some passage that would trigger it. However, pursuing this seems to "use-up" the feeling and after a while the passage would lose its triggering power. If the universe was about to end, and I was allowed to have one final pleasurable experience replayed, selected from any orgasm of frisson I've ever had, I'd definitely pick from among my most intense frissons.
- esfandia 8y ago
  Do you mind sharing what kind of music triggers this in you? The closest to this for me has been late 60's psychedelic music.
  - bane 8y ago
    Yeah sure, it's a huge range of things that are paradoxically highly specific to a few moments. Certain classical moments are pretty reliable. For example, the first few seconds of the Paganini variation here at around 23:00 minutes. https://youtu.be/c33q87s03h4?t=1375 https://youtu.be/c33q87s03h4?t=1375 except not this recording. I used to have a recording of it I inherited from my great grandfather and it was that specific recording that used to send me off. The opening of Beethoven's 7th - 2nd movement (right until the main theme changes up until about 2:30) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mgHxmAsINDk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mgHxmAsINDk Non-classical: The main theme of this a about 1:07 https://youtu.be/YQJSnMvIKM4?t=68 https://youtu.be/YQJSnMvIKM4?t=68 Certain long notes in this song (kind of hard to explain, but certain notes she holds in sustenato): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5FrWoVC6SZ8&list=PL91bz63WYu5LUieMx1B6U7X17pNdUbVTs&index=16 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5FrWoVC6SZ8&list=PL91bz63WYu... This William Ackerman song has some great passages https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1jles3aPfeI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1jles3aPfeI Some moments in this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iV9Ow4kOA4E https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iV9Ow4kOA4E Asucultation by the Antidote used to be a favorite (it doesn't work anymore :() https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GWs2R6W5vCc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GWs2R6W5vCc Many of the pieces of Solar Fields' Movements album are fantastic but especially this song https://youtu.be/yQjove0nzss?t=1096 https://youtu.be/yQjove0nzss?t=1096 All I Need by Radiohead, especially the main bridge. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-LlfGrP4n6E https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-LlfGrP4n6E Mree's cover of Blood, something with her phrasing https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KMe_5O0mYj0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KMe_5O0mYj0 Several pieces by Steve Reich seem to hack the phenomenon for me and run just underneath the trigger: Six Pianos, Music for 18 Musicians, etc. It can also depend on the context, some of the passages won't "work" without other surrounding song context...like the contrast of the triggering passages and the non-triggering is what sort of does it. There's actually an entire subreddit dedicated to this, but I've not found much in other people's music that kicks it off. https://www.reddit.com/r/frisson https://www.reddit.com/r/frisson It's an entirely different feeling of liking music or finding it pleasurable, for which I believe I'm fairly conventional.
eyeball 8y ago
I get this too. I call it eargasm and have a folder full of music files that have triggered it. Anytime I hear a new one I save it in my eargasm playlist.

yesenadam 8y ago

Uh, that second link says studies have reported that from 55% to 86% of people can experience it.

gattr 8y ago

Interesting to know what it's called, thanks. I have a few pieces of music that trigger this for me, up to shivers and tears in the eyes (though not at overwhelming/lightning-bolt levels.) On the other hand, I'm utterly unresponsive to poetry.

bane 8y ago
If it makes you feel better, I've never personally run into somebody in real life who's ever admitted to this phenomenon. I think it must be rare enough, and not really spoken of by people who have it. Childhood was very difficult, the few times I tried to explain it to me parents they thought I just found music very beautiful. It's very hard possessing something so great and never connecting with another person who can also experience it. It's like having a completely different sensory organ and describing what colors are to people who are blind from birth. The internet has definitely helped me realize we're not alone with this thing! (I also don't get much out of poetry and pretty much ignore lyrics in music)
- screye 8y ago
  Is it the feeling of unexplainable unbridled pleasure ? I am reluctant to call it similar to an orgasm , because of the sexual connotations. While my body does not respond in a way similar to an orgasm, the "dopamine rush" (I am being liberal with the term) I get when listening to certain music is very similar. I often have raised hair, tears in my eyes and a general lightheadedness and the biggest grin after such a moment. First time I put it that way. Hoping it doesn't sound too creepy.
  - bane 8y ago
    Not at all, that's the feeling exactly.
ConceptJunkie 8y ago
I get this, sometimes much stronger than others, even for the same music. I donate platelets at the Red Cross which takes a couple hours, so they provide DVD players and a selection of movies to choose from while you are hooked up to the apheresis machine. I found they had a DVD of Yes' Symphonic tour from around 2001, and I felt like a real idiot because my eyes were seriously watering up during a lot of that concert. It's not crying, although it may look the same.