Get A Clue: House Music is FRISSON traveling at 120bpm ~^~^~ the soundwave of heartbeats

I suffer from a pretty unique emotional stimuli: frisson. It's a really interesting and complicated emotion...one that is particularly common among live music aficionados.

Say that you hear a tune that resonates with your heart, your soul, your celestial being...it's one thing to start grooving to the beat or bop your head to the tune of the song, but how many times have you heard or perhaps experienced goosebumps on account of a song? The lyrics or the melody may have spurred a series of chills...often referred to in this context as "musical chills" and according to neurologists and researchers, this is largely correlated to the reward system in the brain. The reward system that usually responds to the simple pleasures of life such as an orgasm...

What that means is you are literally wired differently because only about 50% of people possess this type of sensation from music. Its been coined by researchers as "the sensory superpower". The way that they conducted this particular study was by gathering 20 different people with 20 different types of music tastes. Whenever they experienced a chill, they were supposed to press a button to indicate that. After a series of MRI tests, 50% of the subjects and their respective reactions to music were obvious standouts. Their common denominator, neurologically speaking, was that their brains possessed a higher volume of fibers which connected the auditory cortex with the processes that handle emotions.

So as these nruropathaways intercept, the areas of the brain are able to communicate more effectively. Essentially the heartier the emotional processing centers, the better. You're able to understand and empathize with others on a much deeper level.

Maybe that's why it frustrates me when kindness or goodness is not an act of common sense or a jerk reaction, but rather a performative albeit transactional act.

Which leads me to the.very phenomenon that sparked this entire piece; frisson--the feels, the sensation of your arm hairs standing upright, the literal personification of a magnetic comet. Frisson travels at 120bpm...which is the equivalent of our average heartbeat. I can't quite pinpoint when I've had this experience, but it must have something to do with the fact that every time I experience live music or go to the club or a festival, I want to stand as close as to the bass as possible, I want to hug it and I want the thump-thump-thumper of it to resuscitate the last bit of serotonin that I posses.

I wanted to share some songs that have done this to me since my inception on Earth. The list could not be complete with the one and only coveted La Bouche "Sweet Dreams" which my mom claims made my hips wiggle for the first time as a baby.

Other coveted hits include: Madeon "The City", ATB "Ecstasy (9AM)", Therapie Taxi "Hit Sale" Charlie XCX "360" and many, many others but these are the gems I thought were worth mentioning.

Madeon was my first introduction to French house and my house music awakening that this is in fact the genre I identify most with on a purely psychological and molecular level.

The brain is full of really interesting and unbelievable things. What it does and what it can feel is a blessing that should not be taken for granted, so if you take anything away from this piece, understand that mental health is sacred. We should never take the fact that we can feel music, experience music and interpret music neuropathetically for granted. The brain is a powerful tool capable of amazing things and it continues to develop, discover, widen...if you let it. Treasure it.

Resources: Westmaas, Reuben. “What Getting Chills from Music Says about Your Brain.” Discovery, Discovery, 13 July 2022, www.discovery.com/science/Getting-Chills-from-Music.