It's a known fact that an Adele song can leave you in a puddle of your own tears, but now some experts are saying that your Facebook-stalking playlist could have a more pleasing effect.
A new paper, titled "Thrills, chills, frissons, and skin orgasms: toward an integrative model of transcendent psychophysiological experiences in music," (or, for Friends fans, "The One With the Skin Orgasm"), explains that the goosebumps and other tingly feelings you get while blasting "My Heart Will Go On" amount to your skin totally not faking it.
The paper was authored by musician and psychologist Psyche Loui and Wesleyan University student Luke Harrison. As the BBC report on the paper notes, "Sudden changes in harmony, dynamic leaps (from soft to loud), and melodic appoggiaturas (dissonant notes that clash with the main melody, like you’ll find in Adele’s 'Someone Like You') seem to be particularly powerful," when it comes to eliciting the "musical frisson" studied by Loui and Harrison. That means those acoustic guitar jam sessions on college quads across the country are way more erotic than you thought.
If you're looking to try the theory, BBC has created a skin-orgasm playlist, which includes classical pieces by Bach and Rachmaninoff, as well as contemporary hits from Rufus Wainwright and, of course, Adele. So it appears there really is a skin-orgasm inducing track for every type of musical taste. Whether you decide to try this one it home is entirely up to you. But anyway, here's "Wonderwall." (BBC)
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