What things in music just give you that awesome rush

[DZComposer]

Hard to explain what I mean, but there are things in music that just make my brain just dump a load of dopamine.

Firstly, I am not talking about entire songs. I'm talking about elements to a piece of music. Chords, rhythm patterns, instrumentation, that kind of thing.

I'm not talking about that "I wanna get up and dance" feel. I'm not talking about "Wow, this guy is an awesome [insert instrument here] player!" either.

I'm talking about that "Sweet Jesus Have Mercy" feel, you know:

I'm talking goosebumps. Makes you high on sound alone. It forces you into a deep connection with the music.

For me, it is chord structure. But not just any chord. I mean those chords that have just the right amount of dissonance that happen in just the right place.

Like this Dbsus4aug5add9 (Does that scare you, guitar players? ) chord in measure 113 of Antonin Dvorak's 9th (New World) Symphony, second movement (Largo):

Recording:

(Chord is at 2:21-2:22, but I recommend starting at 1:58 to get the context[1 measure before the score excript starts])

Another thing that gets my dopamine flowing is loud brass chords, especially if the chords meet similar criteria as a mentioned above.

There is nothing better at producing loud brass chords than a top-tier drum corps, like Phantom Regiment:

Good stuff starts at :30

So, what musical things get your dopamine flowing?

[LoneWolf]

Two sons in particular give me that wonderful feeling (along with goosebumps) consistently. I find that if I'm more tired, or if there's less visual stimulus, I tend to get that feeling more often.

The first example is the Bassnectar Remix of Lights by Ellie Goulding.

Right at the drop, around 1:05, chills down my spine and that fantastic release of liquid awesome into my synapses is triggered. Can't quite pinpoint what it is, but whatever it is, I love it.

Second example may be familiar to some of you:

HOPE RIDES ALOOOOOOOONE. Even writing that gave me chills. Good lord this song is good. When they played it live, I swear I almost came. Holy fuck that was legendary to see.

[DZComposer]

I guess I'm not versed enough in the genre of the first song to see it. 1:05 has no major structural difference than the parts before, though there is a rhythmic change a few measures later (1:17). Is that what you meant?

Also, for clarity: The goal of this thread isn't to just post songs. What about them does it, and what parts. It it a particular style or motif that does it. That kind of thing.

[mjakob42]

Without a doubt, there's one specific moment in Nine Inch Nails' "Hurt" (an already incredibly moving and emotional song), found in 3:13.

The way the music suddenly becomes more quiet and intimate (for lack of a better term) just pours even more tears out my eyes, and I already have to deal with enough of that whilst listening to this song.

And please don't get into a NIN vs. Johnny Cash argument...NIN WROTE "HURT" FIRST!!!

[Hidi]

I'll have to update this later when I can get images and stuff to demonstrate, but my two of my favourite performance pieces have moments that I really love playing over.

Adoration (Felix Borrowski)

The slow part of the piece ends with a small sequence of triplets followed by a chord the pianist plays. The one chord triggers an entire change of speed, and sound of the music. At that point I'm usually thinking (Awesomeness!) and I always have to resist the urge to "Hit" the string with my bow (Which would sound terrible trying to reach and whack the G string).

Meditation From Thais (Jules Massenet)

The entire piece is slow, and I love playing it (It's a very popular violin piece) but after playing the first "Verse" the piece speeds up just a touch. Then there are a few high notes followed by it slowly quieting. That phrase ends sort of with a G but I love really love fading the G then really emphasizing the Bb that comes right after it. Even the piano follows along with the sudden change in mood. It then gets all slow and long again .

[LoneWolf]

I guess I'm not versed enough in the genre of the first song to see it. 1:05 has no major structural difference than the parts before, though there is a rhythmic change a few measures later (1:17). Is that what you meant?

Also, for clarity: The goal of this thread isn't to just post songs. What about them does it, and what parts. It it a particular style or motif that does it. That kind of thing.

I suppose it would be the increase in the wibbly-wobbly bass stuff and then the chorus. Or something.

[Vy'drach]

I'm no good with technical terms to these things, so I won't be calling out what exactly it is all too well.

First and foremost, JackleApp's Noctis Pax, and relax DZ. Apart from a quote from the show at the very beginning, there is nothing pony about this song. The part that gets me, however, is 2:04 to 2:36. I recommend listening to the entire thing however as it is full of those moments where it just suddenly blasts you with pure, unadulterated, awesome, but that section I mentioned, I can't help but stop what ever I'm doing, close my eyes as I focus all my being into the feel of the music, and make a hand motion to the beat.

This youtube version seems to have a little bit more reverb than normal on it, probably because JackleApp didn't upload it himself.

I hope this video will be ok, as it has attractive girl behind in it (they're not nude), but just to be on the safe side I'll NSFW it.

Anyway, the parts that get me here are the bagpipe parts, and not for the hot girls. I honestly enjoy the sounds of bagpipes, but when it breaks from the normal song to a bagpipe section, eargasm. The bagpipe parts are 2:25 to 2:54, 4:10 to 4:36, and 5:28 to 5:55, though I recommend listening to those parts early just to hear the cutaway or whatever.

NSFW WARNING

And finally, for this post anyway, Nightwish's Passion and the Opera, namely 2:21 to 3:30. The reason is because Tarja puts her skills as a credentialed opera singer to use, and this is why I can not stand the new Nightwish with Anette singing, as she can neither hit nor hold a note, and they had to overhaul their song style entirely to accomodate that.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cb2dlQFN5-c

[sroberson]

Also lacking the technical terms here, but with my heavy metal listening I have found my hair tends to stand on end whenever much of the song is driven with a lot of tension and you are only allowed to 'rest' on the tonic notes for very brief amount of time before you are sent back into listening to chords ring out that just resound "conflict". I may be mistaken but the transition between the tonic and the subdominant tends to get an aggressive and edgy feel. Above all else is I want to be put on my toes, nothing bores me more with music than knowing what is going to come next. Just getting to the sync of some heavy riffing rhythmic, and then throwing in transitions/fills/solos to keep me guessing. Seeing as my flavor of metal tends to be thrash metal, it could easily be seen as just pure 'chaos'.

Another cool thing I have often found is when the drummer uses double bass drums to synchronize with the alternate picking of guitar chords. Try the verses of Avenged Sevenfold's "Nightmare" for an example. I do get bothered by overuse of double bass drums though, so it walks a very thin line.

[Gene Inari]

For me, a lot of songs from the games Ace Combat 5: The Unsung War and Ace Combat Zero: The Belkan War give me those rushes. Part of is that the music is wonderfully composed and I'll give examples, but it's also the fact you associate the music with your experiences in game. AC: Zero especially does a good job of making your heart pound, having songs that are exclusive to the intense Ace Squadron engagements, basically they have good boss battle music. :U

Too keep the examples short, I'll just have two standout examples from each.

Pretty much the intro the the song, the first 35-ish seconds. You get through a bit of flying with nothing going on, even explicitly telling you aren't going to be attacked and all of a sudden you get warned of enemy contacts and right when they open fire and you start dogfighting is when the music kicks in.

1:40 to 2:05 Once again managing to synch a in-game dogfight with the music.

Now for AC: Zero

http://youtu.be/Es7EB6Oi6oQ

This gives me a rush because in-game you're basically being chased by a horde of enemy craft AND have to dodge shots from an instant-death laser than covers a significant range, all while trying to evacuate the battle space after finishing the first half of the level.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y3INDaStNFs

And this because it's your first encounter with an Ace Squadron. Pretty much all the other AI control enemies are skeet for you to shoot. The Aces? No, they're a whole other ballgame. They know how to perform actual air-combat maneuvers and even bait and lure tactics. If you try to single out a single target the other members of the squad WILL be making your life difficult. The music just tops off the rush of adrenaline.

But yeah, that's my contribution to the thread. :U

[Xortberg]

It's rare that standalone music can give those 'Mother of God' feels. Usually, it has to be music from a soundtrack, and I have to associate that music with something mindblowingly awesome from whatever the song came from. For example:

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

This song alone is pretty awesome, IMO, because I like nontraditional mashups of genres, but it doesn't give me chills based on musical merit alone. Gurren Lagann did a hell of a good job at using its soundtrack at just the right moments to fucking floor you. I can only think of two times in the series this song played, and both times were when shit looked fucking impossible to win, completely hopeless in all ways, and the characters managed to come out ahead anyway for various reasons that I won't go into because this topic is about music, not how moist TTGL makes me. Aaand...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j0L7fOPMqS8

This is from Puella Magi Madoka Magica, and unlike the above song that is associated with pure kick ass and thus gives me chills, I often associate this song with all the times in that series where the characters found out some horrible new truth and everything got all sad and horrifying and I cried my eyes out to this song so many times. It gives the serious chills because of just how magnificently tragic the show was, and how I've come to associate it with those tragic feels.

So yeah. Granted, a song has to be good on its own merits, for the most part, but if it is and if I can associate it with particularly strong feelings, then whenever I listen to that song it has an effect on me that standalone music rarely ever has.

[Icy]

I know most of the posts in here really aren't about what the original intention of this thread was, and neither is my post I guess, but eh, I'm not a musician so I cannot appreciate amazing parts and actually explain them.

A lot of moments in a lot of songs do this to me. Just give you a rush you can't explain.

Here are some standouts.

This... right here. Skip to 0:25 and just listen. It's amazing... to me, at least. Gets me every time.

One of my favorites... 6:25-6:40 is what I'm talking about.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uK2MmmOWRQE

1:50... (Whole thing is amazing)

1:05. That's all.

Not nearly as moving as ^^^^ but still pretty great when 3:50 kicks in for me.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bkHLETPsz5A

I can post more that aren't even soundtracks/songs with lyrics, but that's all for now.

[conaly]

Hi,

I love it, when parts of music sound kind of dramatic and I get this thrilled feeling in my chest. This could be done with orchestral parts, choirs or even special guitar riffs or keyboard-parts. Hard to describe, but some examples:

Globus (Immediate Music) - Europa:

Awesome piece of music. Great orchestra, cool, riffs and great singer - but the choir tops it all! I get really euphoric when I listen to this!

Edguy - Vain Glory Opera / Tears of a Mandrake

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=70GHlZ9uWJ4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p7BPxF-UYbM

Tobias Sammet, singer of Edguy has a stunning voice! I just love it, how much power he has. Especially the choruses in both song have this dramatic aura. Masterpieces!

Winterstorm - Into the Light

Once again a great singer with a very good voice. Especially the chorus and the keyboard-parts make this song so spectacular.

Edit:

Adding some more classical pieces of music:

Camille Saint-Saens - Danse Macabre

The part from 0:40 - 0:55 is kind of creepy and every time this part plays I get goosebumps!

Modest Mussorgsky - Night on Bald Mountain

The first part from 0:00 - 0:29 scarred the hell out of me, when I was a child! It was featured on the SNES game "EarthWorm Jim" in the second level and I even turned down the volume on the TV so I didn't have to listen to this scary part. Today I love it how it still gives me this paranormal feeling.

[Fana McCloud]

Hmm, I actually got a sort of shivery feeling from listening to one track in particular from a game I played through recently, Analogue: A Hate Story. The ups and downs of the strings and their contrast with the rest of the instrumentation really got me. The area of the game that it plays in only adds to the unsettling feeling, but I shan't spoil that by explaining.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YtScXHBxBb0

Then there's a track from Soul Brother called "Let Us Pray" that gives me a very sublime feeling (sorry, can't find it on Youtube anywhere):

http://spacerecordings.bandcamp.com/track/let-us-pray

Pretty much all the tracks from that soundtrack are awesome though, I'd suggest listening to the whole thing.

I'm afraid I don't have much of a vocabulary to explain what's going on in that track that really hits me. In a way both tracks are kinda dependent on the entirety of their composition for creating the effects that really get me, but that's just my very uneducated opinion. Never got heavily into music as a subject in school.

[Dr. Orange]

I have to say ... I'm digging this thread! :3

But on the topic. For me, a song that gives me a rush needs to have that "perfect sound." That one chord or that one fine tune that makes you feel as well as think. You know? Like when I listen to an action song where the good guy is being chased by the bad guy, I want to feel like I'm being chased by the bad guy.

One example for me that fits that would be:

A great example of this is Extreme Ways by Moby. This song was the ending credits of Matt Damon's Ultimatum. When I heard this, I just wanted to parkor over buildings and just fight for the freedom he was fighting for.

And that song that makes you cry, or just feel that sadness the artist was feeling. Where you just need a chair and sit, to question what you believe. To think "What?" and "Why?"

This song I thing would fit the definition. Sure the song gets repetitive, but the lyrics have a strong message and that upwards progression to it. Just so beautiful.

This song also falls into that category. That Piano pattern that Phil plays in the song is such a nice sound. And one again the lyrics play a big part in the song. So strong that I look at my screen and scream "LOOK AT HIM DAMNIT!"

Then there are the songs that get people together, and agree on the sound or dance. That make people feel good and want them to have a good time and a good vibe.

Lets face it. We all have listened to these songs over and over again and we like listening to them. But the question is why? Why do we like these songs? I think it is the tune that makes it good and enjoyable. In Gangnam Style that beat that it has, that lead and the trancechorder in it is one of my favorite things. Safety Dance has that enjoyable square lead and the lyrics are fun to listen to. And then there is the king of them all, the one song that just got this whole thread rick rolled. I've also noticed that all of these song also have a fun dance that goes with the song.

Then there are the elements that make the song what it is. Here is a song that has a nice pad and a nice piano section that just makes me feel good.

I'll edit this later.

[ballisticwaffles]

Acapello. All Acapello sends me into orgasmic bliss. Enya for example.

[PsyMuffin]

Oh boy where can I start, I have to say Hans Zimmer always gets me with his music, especially Inception's!

Just listen to this and hear the dramatic increase in tone. Just amazing. If you've ever seen the movie then you

would know how well this tune fits with it during the scene of it's appearance.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UkvNmb9tMII

[Scourge]

That feeling you get starting at 0:57 when listening to:

and then the heightening of said feeling at 1:43

[DZComposer]

Why the hell did you post this song not sung by Leonard Cohen?

Fixing:

[psy_commando]

Well, usually the only thing giving me goosebumps is when I hear a familiar melody, esepcially with others. Like the first time I played corneria on my pc speaker, I got the goosebumps instantly.

Besides that, there are a few things that have a really strong effect on me:

- Arpeggio : Every songs that I've heard with an Arpeggio "part", have instantly become favorites.

(first song)

(starts at 1:07)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MZ4KcSKUuh8

http://youtu.be/A18vvYPEbyw

-That thing those violins are doing: Not sure how to call that, but once violins start playing these short "parts" it gets me everytimes :

http://youtu.be/54hkP3a2SyQ ( starts at 0:14 )

(starts right at the beggining)