--- title: Why Certain Songs Give You the Chills description: You can try experimenting with the songs yourself canonical: https://time.com/3734431/why-songs-give-you-chills/ author: Improbable Research article:opinion: true article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-03-09T11:00:01.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T04:57:27.915Z article:section: Ideas og:title: Why Certain Songs Give You the Chills og:description: You can try experimenting with the songs yourself og:url: https://time.com/3734431/why-songs-give-you-chills/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltdf34318ce74f1c70/6987826e0b72e357cf6de06b/500796571-copy.jpg?branch=production&width=750&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: violins-performing og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Why Certain Songs Give You the Chills twitter:description: You can try experimenting with the songs yourself twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltdf34318ce74f1c70/6987826e0b72e357cf6de06b/500796571-copy.jpg?branch=production&width=750&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Songs That Give You the Chills by [Improbable Research](/author/improbable-research/) ## Improbable Research Mar 9, 2015 11:00 AM CUT  Violinist performing Violinist performingGetty Images by [Improbable Research](/author/improbable-research/) ## Improbable Research Mar 9, 2015 11:00 AM CUT A good number of scholarly studies have examined the enigmatic ability of music to sometimes induce ‘The Chills’ in humans. See, for example : [‘Musical Piloerection’](http://mmd.sagepub.com/content/4/2/82 "undefined") (by Björn Vickhoff, PhD, Rickard Åström, MFA, Töres Theorell, MD, PhD, Bo von Schéele, PhD, and Michael Nilsson, MD, PhD) in _Music and Medicine_, April 2012 vol. 4 no. 2 82-89. For those who wish to experiment (possibly even self-experiment) with such things, another group of researchers, from the [Centre of Interdisciplinary Research on Music Media and Technology ](http://www.cirmmt.org/ "undefined")(CIRMMT) of McGill University, US (Valorie N. Salimpoor, Mitchel Benovoy, Gregory Longo, Jeremy R. Cooperstock, and Robert J. Zatorre) have compiled a list of musical excerpts which they found can sometimes induce The Chills (listed here in ascending order of chilliness): • Holst, First Suite in E Flat, Classical, score 9:07 • Shostakovich, Symphony No. 11 – Mov. 4,Classical, score 10:00 • Phish, You Enjoy Mylsef, Jazz Fusion, score 10:50 • Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Static, Post-Rock, score 11:20 • Tchaikovsky, Symphony No. 4 – Mov. 1, Classical, score 12:32 • Mahler, Symphony No. 2 – Mov. 1, Classical, score 13:00 • Shostakovich, 11th Symphony – Mov. 2, Classical, score 13:45 • Mahler, Symphony No. 1 – Mov. 1, Classical, score 14:00 • Shostakovich, Symphony No. 11 – Mov. 2, Classical, score 14:00 • Copland, Appalachian Spring Suite, Classical, score 20:00 … and, at number 1, chillwise, • Shostakovich, Symphony No. 4 – Mov. 3, Classical, score 20:30 _See:_ [‘The Rewarding Aspects of Music Listening Are Related to Degree of Emotional Arousal’](http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0007487 "undefined"), PLOS | ONE, October 16, 2009. _Note:_ The list included [Liszt](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franz%5FLiszt "undefined"), whose ‘Danse Macabre’ (a.k.a. [Totentanz](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Totentanz%5F%28Liszt%29 "undefined")), scored a relatively low 0.27 _Also see (and hear):_ [_‘_](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kiss%5Fon%5FMy%5FList "undefined")[Kiss On My List’](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kiss%5Fon%5FMy%5FList "undefined") (which may or may not induce The Chills) _This_ [_article_](http://www.improbable.com/2015/02/20/liszt-is-on-the-list-of-musical-chill-inducers/ "undefined") _originally appeared on_ [_Improbable Research_](http://www.improbable.com "undefined")_._ ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"OpinionNewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3734431/why-songs-give-you-chills/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3734431/why-songs-give-you-chills/"},"headline":"Songs That Give You the Chills","datePublished":"2015-03-09T11:00:01.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T04:57:27.915Z","description":"You can try experimenting with the songs yourself","url":"https://time.com/3734431/why-songs-give-you-chills/","keywords":["Innovation","Science topic"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltdf34318ce74f1c70/6987826e0b72e357cf6de06b/500796571-copy.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Improbable Research","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/improbable-research/"}],"articleSection":"Ideas","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltdf34318ce74f1c70/6987826e0b72e357cf6de06b/500796571-copy.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"violins-performing","caption":"violins-performing","creditText":"Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/ideas/","name":"Ideas"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3734431/why-songs-give-you-chills/","name":"Songs That Give You the Chills"}}]}] ```