Posted on 02/13/2012 10:11:22 AM PST by nuconvert
Why does Adele's 'Someone Like You' make everyone cry? Science has found the formula.
-Excerpt-
Twenty years ago, the British psychologist John Sloboda conducted a simple experiment. He asked music lovers to identify passages of songs that reliably set off a physical reaction, such as tears or goose bumps. Participants identified 20 tear-triggering passages, and when Dr. Sloboda analyzed their properties, a trend emerged: 18 contained a musical device called an "appoggiatura."
An appoggiatura is a type of ornamental note that clashes with the melody just enough to create a dissonant sound. "This generates tension in the listener," said Martin Guhn, a psychologist at the University of British Columbia who co-wrote a 2007 study on the subject. "When the notes return to the anticipated melody, the tension resolves, and it feels good."
Chills often descend on listeners at these moments of resolution. When several appoggiaturas occur next to each other in a melody, it generates a cycle of tension and release. This provokes an even stronger reaction, and that is when the tears start to flow.
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
If the Ballad of the Green Baret doesn’t give you a ‘spec in your eye’ then nothing will.
Thanks, but now that I’ve heard it I’d say it’s more of a “channel-changer” than a tear-jerker for me...
Ragged Old Flag, by Johnny Cash
I like Adele, but I’m not crying :)
Ennio Morricone? ONE http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_HEnIt1SMyo&feature=related TWO http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jj5Xczethmw THREE http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PuyYc0gINbU&feature=fvst
They still hit the harmonies well.
Rest of it? I dunno. I know so little about pop music anymore that I can't comment. Most all it all either 1) sounds the same to me or 2) was stuff that I already heard 10, 15 or 20 years ago.
I'm sure that my dad would say the same thing to me. Pop culture never changes, it just recycles itself. Rarely is there any real innovation.
Some of folk/pop singer Victoria Williams’ songs can bring tears to my eyes.
Yeah, I miss him every 4th of July when I watch the specials on TV.
He wasn't just singing the song. He meant every word of what he sang.
I always like to keep up with newly minted music (not dance, sampling mixing or unintelligible lyrics, or spoken lyrics (hip-hop) or profanity).
Adele is the best that has come along of her genre, since Jewel in the 1990s. Some of Gaga’s stuff is OK sans dancing. There’s a 2007 song “Hey There Delilah” by the Plain White T’s that evokes Simon and Garfunkle. So there’s some good new stuff; you just have to weed out so much crap.
Adele’s “Chasing Pavement” is her best song. The vidio is sombering, 2 lovers die in a car crash and come back together
I am 60 and addicted to “Someone Like You”. Love it.
OK, don't leave me hanging.
I'll give you one that gets me going, He Shall Feed His Flock from The Messiah by Handel.
Posts like this make me wonder why people post on topics they know nothing about. This "fat" girl is today's antithesis to todays young-girl "piece of a$$ of the week", tartathon. She is talented, and doesnt have to use sex, sleaze, or "theatrics" (Lady Gag-me, or that other horrific woman, Manaj). She just sings. If only there were more like her.
I sob like a little baby whenever I see the clips or youtube of Whitney singing the National Anthem. Perfection!
Course I played it about 4 times yesterday. :(
The Navy Hymn. Can’t even make it past the few bars.
I think Adele is amazing. And what gets me about “someone like you” is how sweet and honest the girl is. She loves this guy so much that she finds herself still in love and wishing him well even after he has marked someone else. And heseeems pretty kind too abOut how sometimes love leads to pain The lyrics are more sweet than bitter. But her voice is so full of pain. Beautiful.
The Navy Hymn. Can’t even make it past the few bars.
The Navy Hymn. Can’t even make it past the first few bars.
I never watch the Grammys, but did watch them last night and none of my FB friends liked the act you mention. We couldn’t figure out what was going on. I had it muted tho since I couldn’t stand to listen to it. It didn’t seem like entertainment. It was more fun to read what people were saying. Adele was great tho. That girl has talent.
You know, she might curse a blue streak when she talks tho. Bless her heart, I can’t understand a word she says!
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