Music Gives You Goosebumps? You Could Be A “Natural” DJ…

When listening to a great track, do you ever get that feeling that makes all the hairs on your arms stand on end? Turns out we all do here at Digital DJ Tips HQ! However, according to this article, experiencing sensations like goosebumps when listening to tunes is quite rare and unique.

This emotional response could be something that makes us more inclined towards music, and therefore, perhaps it is no coincidence that such people find themselves involved with DJing.

Are you a “natural”?

As per the article linked above, Harvard researcher Matthew Sachs studied individuals who get chills from music to see how this feeling was triggered. The research involved scanning the brains of 20 students: 10 admitted to experiencing the aforementioned feelings in relation to music, and 10 didn’t. Matthew discovered that those who get chills from music have different brain structures compared to those who didn’t: Put simply, the brain areas linking hearing and emotion have denser neural fibres.

This means if you do get chills from music you are more likely to have stronger and more intense emotions. These sensations may also be associated with memories linked to a certain song.

Perhaps this is why we DJ: Maybe our deeper emotional connection to the music we listen to has been pulling us in this direction all along. I get these “chills” on a weekly basis. The most recent time that this happened to me was on Monday when I was listening to this track:

When the vocal kicks in, the hairs on my arms stood up and I felt a warm buzz flow around my body. As this happens to me fairly frequently, I have learned how to savour it and can make the buzz “pulse” around my body. I often get this feeling when I think back to some great moments clubbing with friends or from my own DJ experiences, dropping certain tracks. I spoke to one of my brothers about it and he gets the same tingles and, you guessed it, he is also a DJ. On the other hand, my wife does not get these feeling when listening to music and is often confused as to how and why it is that I get so emotional when listening to certain tracks.

I am sure that it isn’t just DJs who get these feelings when listening to music, but it does seem that being so emotionally connected to it could be a good indicator of whether you are a “natural” at DJing. If you know someone who describes these feelings but hasn’t been behind the decks yet, why not encourage them to give it a shot?

Does music ever give you goosebumps? Is there a specific piece of music that triggers it? When was the last time it happened? Let us know in the comments below…