Why Do Certain Songs Give You Chills?
The Air Force Thunderbirds were soaring in a crystal blue sky above me. They made a deep banked turn in a diamond formation directly above my head, the chorus to Free by the Zac Brown Band played over the speakers,I got the chills.
Was it the moment or the music that made the hairs on my arms stand up? According to scientists, it was probably both.
The "frissons" as they say south of I-10 are an instinctive reaction to certain strong emotions. The hypothalamus, which is a part of your brain, is in charge of these reactions and you get them for a lot of different reasons. It's all hard-wired into our DNA for this part of the brain to send signals to the rest of our body that something important is happening or about to happen.
Think of all the reasons you get goosebumps. It could be cold, it could be nostalgia or a sad song, or it could be fear. It's just your brain doing what it's supposed to do. Now that we've gotten some of the science out of the way, what songs or situations give you the frissons?