dopamine

Why do we love songs that make us cry? The strong emotions they invoke set off a physical reaction that increases our "feel good" hormone dopamine. So even though it seems like we’re unhappy, we’ve never felt HAPPIER!

When psychologist John Sloboda asked people to identify the parts of songs that made them cry, he analyzed these passages and found that they all contained a musical device called an "appoggiatura," which is a type of note that clashes with the melody just enough to create a dissonant sound.
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