Darkest Hour

One of the best songs ever. If the chorus doesn't give you goosebumps i don't know what will.

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theimperialwarcult

That's awesome!

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See when you put a shell to your ear, it is not the sound of crashing waves you're hearing, it's the amplified current of your bloodstream -SF

VEGANGELICA

I agree with The Unfan that this Depeche Mode song is very effective (especially since Depeche Mode is one of my favorite bands), but my hairs did not stand on end while listening to it. Even though very few of the songs in this thread have caused my body hairs to stand on end, I've enjoyed listening to the music because the biologist and musician in me wants to know what commonalities, if any, songs have that cause people's hair to rise up. I've long been interested in the physiological (emotional) phenomenon of hair-raising music.

So far my minimal research into hair-raising songs has informed me that infrasound (very low frequencies below our range of hearing) can cause people's hair to stand on end, but this effect is usually associated with chills and feelings of fear. Presumably this sensitivity to infrasound was a biological advantage to humans and other animals because storms and earthquakes cause infrasound, so those animals with the ability to perceive infrasound have advanced warning and perhaps greater ability to survive. Health & Medical News - The fear of 'haunted' houses explained - 08/09/2003

However, when a song causes *my* hair to stand up on end, my emotions are not fear and revulsion but instead a very good feeling of awe and meaningfulness...the song seems to have a sense of anguished beauty. Although infrasound may be involved, there certainly seems to be more going on that causes people's hair to stand on end (in a good way rather than a fearful way). Listening to all the songs that make *your* (MB members') hair stand on end hasn't helped me figure out, yet, what causes this hair-raising response to more contemporary music, although a combination of a musical crescendo and meaningful lyrics seem to be involved.

The first several times I listened to the Prelude from Bach's Cello Suite No. 1, played by Rostropovich, my hairs stood on end and I had a very exhilarated feeling at 1:45 in the music, which followed a buildup in the music's tension beginning around 1:24. I suspect a lot of classical music composers tried to elicit this response since I've heard many classical songs that use a similar pattern of notes and a buildup then release in the music. My hairs stood on end the first or second time I heard the song, but the effect died down as I got more familiar with the song...which is too bad, because I love the feelings/emotions associated with songs that make my hairs stand on end. Wait! New alert!! I just tested out the song on me once more, and my hairs stood up on end again! First I feel a slight excited prickly feeling, and then the hairs on my legs and arms start to stand up (and yes, I have hairs on my legs). The effect sort of washes over the skin of my body and lasts about 5 seconds. Only my limbs appear to be involved (my head hair does not seem to stand up). The youtube video doesn't allow embedding, but you can click on "watch on youtube" to view it, or simply click on: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LU_QR_FTt3E

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CanwllCorfe

Epic trance! It's so damn beautiful. Aly & Fila are amazing at producing it





Hardstyle too.. cause it's still epic. Not in the beautiful or uplifting sense, but in the loud and insanely aggressive bass and melodies.



Make sure you watch the whole thing.. it gets better as it goes along. They're speaking dutch too so no, I don't know what they're saying.

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Your eyes were never yet let in to see the majesty and riches of the mind, but dwell in darkness; for your God is blind.

theimperialwarcult

I agree with you on this one. This piece is absolutely beautiful. The hair raising effect of this piece when you hear it live is so much more intense! Here's an awesome youtube video with Bach's Cello Suite No. 1 in G Major.

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See when you put a shell to your ear, it is not the sound of crashing waves you're hearing, it's the amplified current of your bloodstream -SF

simplephysics

Blue You by The Magnetic Fields always gets to me, not a hair raiser in that it will blast you out of your skin, but it still works. you can call it a novelty, but i call it amazing.

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Caleb48kb

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SEaz5DPmoaY

This is a great version of Dave and Tim I just found. Gave me goosebumps!

Sneer

Sebadoh - Not too Amused

I love this song more than i love my penis. Almost.

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VEGANGELICA

That video did start my hairs a-rising, theimperialwarcult, partly because of the resonant sound of the cello, but also because of the mesmerizing video that reminds me of the biological connection among all humans, since the faces of the women in the paintings are connected as if they were one person.

MORE INFORMATION ON WHY MUSIC CAUSES BODY HAIR TO STAND UP:

Since my last post on this topic, I've done some more investigating, and here is what I found out. Last week I heard my orchestra conductor mention in passing that there is an Italian term for the "hair-raising" moment in music, and so yesterday I asked him about it. My conductor said that he thinks the Italian term for a hair-raising moment is "con salancia" and Puccini referred to this term frequently. He said that composers do, indeed, try to write music to cause the emotional response leading to the positive (moved) feeling associated with hairs standing on end, but that what works for one person often does not work for another, so there is no secret formula. If there were, composers would use it all the time, he said.

My conductor explained that, based on the theory of Leonard B. Meyer, who wrote Emotion and Meaning in Music, one psychological explanation for songs causing the hairs to stand on end is that humans feel emotion most strongly when they are denied something, and so music that causes a feeling of tension and denial followed by fulfillment is most likely to cause the hairs to stand on end. Sounds rather orgasmic, doesn't it?

He also said that infrasound (the frequency below the lowest we can hear) does *not* cause the positive, hair-raising moment that is more emotion-based (the "con salancia" moment is songs such as Bach's Cello Suite No. 1, Prelude). Instead, infrasound results in a physiological response similar to fear. He said loud, booming disco music (that damages one's ears) often has infrasound, and people like the feeling of prickles on the back of the neck and excitement it causes it...which is too bad, because they will damage their hearing to get that effect.

Now, here's a song that almost but not quite causes my hair to rise up in a positive way ("con salancia") because of its plaintive beauty:
"Thoughts of a dying atheist," by Muse:

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jackhammer

I think that frequency's that we cannot hear has nothing to do with 'hair raising' on a purely automatic level. Human anatomy may well be attuned to certain sounds that 'literally' raise the hairs but they are subconscious. The songs that really do it for me are listened to entirely within a normal situation and it is those songs that define us both physically and mentally.

Ascribing a prosaic formula to these songs that really touch us is missing the point. Everyone has a unique listening pattern that invokes many emotions within ourselves and reducing it to theory is a disservice to music and it's effects upon us.

I am not not educated enough to elucidate upon this but I do feel that music is a medium that deserves to be a little bit mysterious and personal to the listener. The last minute of the Radiohead vid I posted early in the thread STILL makes the hairs on my arms stand on end whether there is a physiological reason or not.

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