Adele‘s popularity is growing fast. Just this week she went back home with 6 Grammy awards, and she is known around the world of some of the most emotional songs out there. For example, the well known ‘Someone Like You’ is almost iconic in the fact that it makes people cry just by hearing it. But what exactly initiate these tears, why do some songs seem to make people tear up all the time, while others don’t? It seems like the melody might be to blame, and scientists who studied the question think they have the answer.
British singer-songwriter Adele was one of the main attraction at the 2012 Grammy Awards, and won awards for titles like ‘Rolling In The Deep’. But it’s her song ‘Someone Like You’ that preoccupied a group of scientists recently, trying to find out why it’s such an emotional song, and why people end up crying simply by hearing it. The ballad is so tear-inducing that apparently Saturday Night Live uses it when they need actors to cry together in a skit. What exactly can explain this uncanny power? Researchers found out that it would seem certain musical features tend to provoke emotional reactions in listeners. These are consistently creating strong emotions, and making people cry. When combined with a powerful voice, certain musical notes can create just the right signals for your brain to react a certain way.
Research into music isn’t new. 20 years ago, a scientist by the name of John Sloboda conducted an experiment where he asked subjects to identify parts of songs that made them cry or created goose bumps. But now, several features were identified, 20 patterns in particular, that explained why people cried. And when investigated, scientists found that they all contained something called ‘appoggiatura’. Basically, an appoggiatura is a type of musical note that clashes with the rest of the melody just enough to create an audible dissonant sound. This helps create tension in the listener, and explains why their emotions are so high. Then, when the normal melody resumes, then tensions vanish, and it feels good. This, in simple terms, helps explain why certain musical notes always seem to make people cry.
Adele’s song isn’t the only one to provoke these kinds of emotions, but now with these latest discoveries we know what type of music is most likely to do this, and elicit this sort of reaction. With that type of knowledge, it becomes easier to create these songs on demand, and get exactly the type of reaction you want from the public. ‘Someone Like You’ may be a fabulous song, but it also happens to have some science behind it, and researchers now believe they realize what goes on behind these notes.
