Everybody knows that Adele is a good singer. Surprisingly, her skillfulness in music is what makes her really good, if you know what we mean.
Scientists found that the music of Adele, along with a couple of other artists, stir up pleasure similar to those brought about by sexual tension.
In a latest experiment, laboratory tests found that Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No. 2, Adele's Someone Like You, Leonard Cohen's Hallelujah, Bach's Toccata in F Major and Celine Dion's My Heart Will Go On were most likely to give listeners skin orgasms, or as psychologists call it, "frisson."
In a paper published in the online journal Frontiers in Psychology, experts from the Department of Psychology at the Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut explain the psycho-physiological experiences in music triggered by skin orgasms.
The researchers found that according to a previous study, 80 percent of a selected group of listeners experience a physical reaction to music. The listeners mentioned having shivers down the spine, a lump in the throat, and laughter and tears.
In another study, 24 percent of participants experience tears, 10 percent get shivers and 5 percent feel goosebumps on the skin. A small percent of the participants reported having a sensory overload with a sexual orgasm.
To make it more defined, experts interpret frisson as that thrilling sensation, which is actually a sudden and strong feeling of thrill or excitement.
"The term implies a pleasurable sensation that is paradoxically both universal and variable," said Wesleyan University psychologist Professor Psyche Loui and her colleague Luke Harrison. Depending on the person and the circumstances frisson is induced, it could affect different parts of the body. Frisson retains similar sensory, affective and evaluative physiological and biological components to those of a sexual orgasm.
Loui is also a violinist and a pianist, but anyone else can feel electrifying senses like frisson when listening to music.
"The aesthetic experience can be so intense that you can't do anything else," added Loui.
When people pick up specific measures, sensations like chills, tingles and shivers are stirred. The researchers were able to see - or hear - which features would more likely trigger sensations during musical frisson. Melodic appoggiaturas, sudden harmonic changes and dynamic leaps from soft to loud and back were found to trigger more sensations. Such features are found in the popular Adele song Someone Like You.
Photo: Matthew Trudeau Photography | Flickr
