{"id":1048660,"date":"2026-06-25T06:54:18","date_gmt":"2026-06-25T06:54:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1048660\/"},"modified":"2026-06-25T06:54:18","modified_gmt":"2026-06-25T06:54:18","slug":"why-purple-rain-gives-you-goosebumps-according-to-science","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1048660\/","title":{"rendered":"Why \u2019Purple Rain\u2019 gives you goosebumps, according to science"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Prince<\/p>\n

Credit: Far Out \/ Alamy<\/p>\n

Thu 25 June 2026 4:00, UK <\/p>\n

\u201cI was raised by HBO, Spielberg, and Prince<\/a>,\u201d Pedro Pascal once said. \u201cAnd for me, \u2018Purple Rain\u2019 is like the most emotionally cathartic, the most musically sophisticated song that I can think of.\u201d<\/p>\n

The song was the centrepiece of Prince\u2019s 1984 film Purple Rain, the semi-autobiographical story of a musician\u2019s rise to fame in Minneapolis. A film Prince later called his \u201calbatross\u201d, Purple Rain is one of the most accomplished movies a musician ever made, inspiring a host of other musicians to attempt to blend romanticism with realism in a way that feels both entertaining and authentic.<\/p>\n

At least, that\u2019s what The Who\u2019s Pete Townshend later said<\/a> while discussing the impact of the film on his own work, saying that White City was inspired by the way Prince brought to life a location on-screen, with music that enhanced the film\u2019s appeal by making the themes and messages feel both sensationalised and something you could easily resonate with.<\/p>\n

The song is the main hook of the entire story, initially suggested as an idea by two members of Prince\u2019s band, Wendy Melvoin and Lisa Coleman. At first, Prince ignores it, much to the dismay of Melvoin, who calls him out for constantly dismissing any ideas they present him with. However, Prince ultimately performs the song at the end, a liberating moment that serves as the film\u2019s main point of catharsis.<\/p>\n

Prince initially wrote the song after being inspired by Bob Seger, mesmerised by how some of his songs, like \u2018Night Moves\u2019 and \u2018Mainstreet\u2019, drew bigger connections with his audience<\/a>. Mainly, Prince was obsessed with the idea of writing a slower song that resonated with people because they told deeply personal stories, and thus \u2018Purple Rain\u2019 was born.<\/p>\n

Unlike most slow ballads, however, \u2018Purple Rain\u2019 has the power to evoke a deeper emotional reaction, almost like it triggers a physical response that makes you feel like you\u2019ve just experienced some sort of euphoric ritual. The initial chords themselves are enough to incite goosebumps, before the slow build takes you somewhere else entirely, somewhere both nostalgic and intimate. <\/p>\n

The science and psychology behind this is fairly simple. For starters, because of its setup \u2013 that is, taking its time with slow arrangements and chords that immediately make you feel both melancholic and hopeful \u2013 we experience a profound sense of tension and relief, resulting in a specific type of catharsis that feels particularly satisfying because it feels earned.<\/p>\n

Further reading: From The Vault<\/strong><\/p>\n

When we look at what makes some of the happiest songs of all time<\/a>, most of them are based on a series of familiar patterns, like pace, key, melody, themes, and bounciness. Based on this idea of tension and relief, \u2018Purple Rain\u2019 sort of exists in the middle of happy and sad, giving us that mix of strangely satisfying despair and liberation we experience every time we listen to the song.<\/p>\n

At the same time, the psychology of the colour purple also evokes connotations of emotional depth, connection and spirituality, adding to that overarching sense of catharsis\u2026 It\u2019s almost like facing your troubles head-on and then finally releasing them into the ether, leading to broader feelings of validation and freedom, which is why when Pascal recently said it was \u201cthe most emotionally cathartic, the most musically sophisticated song\u201d, he was certainly onto something.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

ADD AS A PREFERRED SOURCE ON GOOGLE \"\"\/ <\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Credit: Far Out \/ Alamy Thu 25 June 2026 4:00, UK \u201cI was raised by HBO, Spielberg, and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":621657,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3936],"tags":[81823,274592,77,269,22131,176791,7794,222,287907,2535,70,16,15],"class_list":["post-1048660","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-1980s","tag-274592","tag-entertainment","tag-music","tag-pedro-pascal","tag-pop-rock","tag-prince","tag-psychology","tag-purple-rain","tag-rock-music","tag-science","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116809437570093139","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1048660","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1048660"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1048660\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/621657"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1048660"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1048660"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1048660"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}