Humanity’s soundtrack: How music has influenced society

Center for New Music & Audio Technologies technical director Wagner, in a studio. — ARIC CRABB/Bay Area News Group/TNS

WHEN was the last time music made the hairs on the back of your neck stand up, sent a chill down your spine or gave you goosebumps all over?

Whether it’s a full-body rush from joining in an outdoor choir of 58,000 Swifties at Levi’s Stadium or a shudder from the evocative tension that’s made Samuel Barber’s Adagio for Strings cinema’s unofficial mourning song, those moments spark a psychophysiological phenomenon or frisson.