Hair Raisers!

The "Elephant Love Medley" from the movie Moulin Rouge. I love this movie, and if you've seen it you probably already know the hair-raising part I'm referring to.
Basically the whole scene is Ewan McGregor and Nicole Kidman singing various love songs to each other, while walking around the inside of a giant elephant shaped building.
It's all very good and fun, but if you wanna see chill-inducing part, go to 3:15ish and watch from there on. They go from singing, "We could be hero's" and then at 3:25 the tempo slows just a little bit and Ewan starts singing, "I will always love yoouuuuuuu." The window behind them bursts into fireworks, and the camera starts spinning around them. The imagery definitely helps, but yeah...I could rewind that little bit 10 times in a row and get chills every time. :D

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Starting from about 1:30. It's one of those songs that make you want to hit the gas in your car and blow through red lights.

edit: nuts, trying to figure out how to post the video

edit: Got it, and thanks NuraberNineDream.
 
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...there's more i just can't be bothered posting them right now tbh.
 
for me it's gotta be Lacrimosa in Mozart's Requiem. Man the song just gives me the chills. Or maybe Cosmia by Joanna Newsom. Whenever I hear that song I feel like I'm in an enchanted forest.
 
That video did start my hairs a-rising, theimperialwarcult, partly because of the resonant sound of the cello, but also because of the mesmerizing video that reminRAB me of the biological connection among all humans, since the faces of the women in the paintings are connected as if they were one person.

MORE INFORMATION ON WHY MUSIC CAUSES BODY HAIR TO STAND UP:

Since my last post on this topic, I've done some more investigating, and here is what I found out. Last week I heard my orchestra conductor mention in passing that there is an Italian term for the "hair-raising" moment in music, and so yesterday I asked him about it. My conductor said that he thinks the Italian term for a hair-raising moment is "con salancia" and Puccini referred to this term frequently. He said that composers do, indeed, try to write music to cause the emotional response leading to the positive (moved) feeling associated with hairs standing on end, but that what works for one person often does not work for another, so there is no secret formula. If there were, composers would use it all the time, he said.

My conductor explained that, based on the theory of Leonard B. Meyer, who wrote Emotion and Meaning in Music, one psychological explanation for songs causing the hairs to stand on end is that humans feel emotion most strongly when they are denied something, and so music that causes a feeling of tension and denial followed by fulfillment is most likely to cause the hairs to stand on end. SounRAB rather orgasmic, doesn't it?

He also said that infrasound (the frequency below the lowest we can hear) does *not* cause the positive, hair-raising moment that is more emotion-based (the "con salancia" moment is songs such as Bach's Cello Suite No. 1, Prelude). Instead, infrasound results in a physiological response similar to fear. He said loud, booming disco music (that damages one's ears) often has infrasound, and people like the feeling of prickles on the back of the neck and excitement it causes it...which is too bad, because they will damage their hearing to get that effect.

Now, here's a song that almost but not quite causes my hair to rise up in a positive way ("con salancia") because of its plaintive beauty:
"Thoughts of a dying atheist," by Muse:

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Yeah I think it's just because every time I listen to it I envision their performance at Qlimax. The part starts at around 5:50.. just all those people clapping at the same time.. it's amazing

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Another 2 songs that are hair raising:

One of 3 songs ATB dedicated to 911 victims (this one, I Wanna Cry, and Hero).

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I don't even need to explain this one

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^No prob.

I wanted to post a youtube link, but couldn't find any for that song.
It's old man by Love.

in the sentence "I know the old man would laugh" [1:31], never fails to give me the chills.
 
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This song is so moody, nobody does it quite like Portishead. And this live performance is amazing.
 
I think that frequency's that we cannot hear has nothing to do with 'hair raising' on a purely automatic level. Human anatomy may well be attuned to certain sounRAB that 'literally' raise the hairs but they are subconscious. The songs that really do it for me are listened to entirely within a normal situation and it is those songs that define us both physically and mentally.

Ascribing a prosaic formula to these songs that really touch us is missing the point. Everyone has a unique listening pattern that invokes many emotions within ourselves and reducing it to theory is a disservice to music and it's effects upon us.

I am not not educated enough to elucidate upon this but I do feel that music is a medium that deserves to be a little bit mysterious and personal to the listener. The last minute of the Radiohead vid I posted early in the thread STILL makes the hairs on my arms stand on end whether there is a physiological reason or not.
 
Eyerer & Chopstick Feat. Zdar "Make My Day (Haunting Vocal Mix)
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This song has been a favorite since I heard it on a Ministry of Sound comp CD a few years back. Always gets me hyper, and I'm listening to it for the 3rd time in a row as I type this.

It's called the Haunting Vocal Mix for a reason, and the hair raising part for me occurs at around 1:50 when the all the music stops and all you hear is, "Everywhere I go...Everytime I play" repeated. Then, slowely, the music starts to kick back into full swing as he goes into the full chorus.

Also, f*ck if that dog isn't completely badass, and I really really want one. :thurab:
 
I don't really get involved in politics. I'm a socialist but I don't go around trying to convert people nor do I care to argue about it, I just have socialist principles. So, regardless of the underlying political theme of this cover, it's truly powerful musically. I can hardly hold myself together when the sax comes in towarRAB the end.
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