Ever hear a few seconds of a song and it brings a flood of emotions? This has been studied and its called Appoggiatura.
Italian meaning to learn. Your brain is constantly predicting the next note. An appoggiatura plays a wrong note first, a dissonant lean then it resolves. In 1991, music psychologist john Sloboda surveyed 83 listeners about songs that made them cry. He analyzed the structure of 38 specific passages. Tears were mostly reliably triggered by sequences and appoggiaturas. When you cry to a song, something measurable happens. Emotional tears contain higher levels of prolactin, ACTH, leu-enkephalin. Whether that’s the cause of post – cry relief – or just a marker – researchers till debate. But your nervous system is definitely doing something. A 2017 study of 892 adults asked one simple question: have you ever felt like crying while listening to music? 89.8% said yes. 63% described it as sadness. Other 38% said awe. Decades of research suggest emotional tears are tied to stress regulation, social bonding, and emotional processing. A 4 minute song a rea cry a 40000 year old reset.
The song that wrecks me:
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