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.”
(via Why Adele’s ‘Someone Like You’ Makes Everyone Cry - WSJ.com)
Adele’s songs don’t make me cry (except in frustration that they keep playing her same two songs on the radio over and over and over), but identifying appoggiatura as a specific and consistent chill-inducer is pretty cool. This is something I’d noticed as a musician but never knew it’d actually been studied.
An illustrated guide to the Assad clan.
via soupsoup
Inside Instagram: How Slowing Its Roll Put the Little Startup in the Fast Lane
via chris b.
(Source: chrisbrook)
Report: Watching Episode of ‘Downton Abbey’ Counts As Reading Book
“It’s a period piece with British accents and drama that hinges on each character’s place within an aristocratic peerage system, so needless to say, viewing one show from beginning to end is basically the same as reading a book.”
(via popculturebrain)
All other sour beers wished they tasted this good (Taken with picplz.)
The United States of College Sports
After growing up in a place with so many different fiercely loyal college sports fans it’s kinda weird living in a region that shares just one team, and no one really cares about them anyway.
via warrennotg
Don’t drive angry.
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How Romney’s Tax Rate Stacks Up To Recent Presidential Candidates’ | TPM