Natural Highs: Timbre and Chills in Electronic Dance Music

The composition of contemporary electronic dance music (EDM) requires considerable technical expertise and finesse in the creation and manipulation of sound timbre. The function of timbre in this type of music is critical for creating dynamic structure, tension and release in a work to provide the conditions for a listener to be emotionally moved in the manner intended by the composer.The analysis of existing compositional works will seek to gauge the extent of emotional impact through the psychophysiological response to music known as musical chills or frisson. This response is often felt by the listener as a tingle or shiver which may spread down the back, neck, arms or legs. Current research into physiological responses to music and their relationship to emotions, along with traditional musical analysis of chill response sections of music, rarely takes timbre into account. This paper intends to draw attention to and explore the relationship of timbre to the chill response in EDM, with reference to specific sound creation and manipulation production techniques.