Frisson

From Webster's -

frisson (noun) fri-ˈsōnz a brief moment of emotional excitement : shudder, thrill

From Hal -

the last Yeah in the chorus of She Loves You

the violins in Walk Away Renee

the violins and Gulbransen organ of Wichita Lineman

piano intro to Apocalypse Please

the prechorus to Colours to Life

In his book "Why You Like It, the Science & Culture of Musical Taste" Nolan Gasser (who was instrumental in developing Pandora’s algorithms) traces frisson back to prehuman history as a response to cold and later in the evolutionary process, to fear. According to Gasser this classical response is referred to as a "piloerection". This helps explain young males interest in hard rock.

In a recent Wall Street Journal I've also read of Sulinna Ong on who's ears Spotify relies to give a human touch to the algorithms they use to discover new artists and music for their playlists. I'd be interested in knowing how much frisson plays into her choices, or whether hers is a more analytical approach.

I'm pretty sure AI technology is or has been developed to measure the frisson "fix" required to hook the ears of the most profitable target market(s) of the music streaming world. I'm also pretty certain that AI technology is or has been developed that will create the combination of sounds best to create piloerections among that same audience.

We can add this to the mix that results in everything being played exactly on the beat and every note being autotuned to a pristine pitch, thus training future generations' ears to not recognize any human element. Even with the imperfections of recordings in the analog world there was often an exuberance to the performance that was far more important in creating an enjoyable listening experience.

Asking as one who experienced the frisson that occurred on the evening of 2.09.1964, would a 2 minute 20 second imperfect recording written, performed and recorded by a group of four humans have any impact today?