Why Music Moves Us... and Sometimes Makes Us Cry.

Have you ever felt a song before you understood it? Felt the goosebumps on your arms that make those wee hairs stick up when you hear a choir?

Maybe it’s a swell of voices rising together, or maybe it’s a harmony that seems to wrap you up in a warm hug. Or maybe it’s a moment from a kapa haka bracket, when a rōpū comes together in perfect unity, that sends a shiver down your spine and you feel the tears prick your eyes.

But why? How can music make us feel this way, even when we have seemingly no connection to the people or lyrics? This NZ Music Month, we are breaking down the science (and emotion) behind music. 

Music activates multiple areas of the brain at once, especially regions linked to emotion, memory, and reward. Brain imaging research shows that listening to music engages regions such as the amygdala, hippocampus, and nucleus accumbens, which are all involved in emotional processing and pleasure (Koelsch, 2014; Schaefer, 2017). Through your auditory pathway (ears to brain), music not only sounds 'good,' but it is also having a meaningful impact on your roro (brain). Some of these responses can be so strong that researchers describe them as peak emotional experiences, including physical reactions like goosebumps (often called “chills”) and tears (Mori & Iwanaga, 2017).

There’s something especially powerful about harmonies, hearing multiple notes or voices combine to create something that can leave your mouth agape. We can look to kapa haka as the most significant example of this, the pros at harmonies, weaving together voices to create emotional impact that goes beyond any single performer - the perfect sound of a collective.

Research shows that specific musical features, including harmony, are closely linked to emotional intensity and can predict when listeners experience strong reactions like chills or tears (Juslin et al., 2022). One reason for this is our predisposed expectations… Your brain is constantly predicting what will come next in music. Harmonies create patterns of tension and release, and when those expectations are fulfilled, or unexpectedly shifted, it can trigger a strong emotional response (Sauvé et al., 2017). We get excited “when the beat drops” because of the build up of expectation. Equally, our emotions peak when everything comes together musically.

Crying in response to music is more common than you might think (unless you are like us, who will cry at everything).

Crying doesn’t necessarily equate to sadness though. Research shows that music-induced tears are linked to emotional release and regulation, often occurring during moments of reflection or calm rather than high excitement (Mori & Iwanaga, 2017). Studies suggest two main emotional pathways behind this response:

- Sadness, often connected to memory or personal meaning

- Awe, a feeling of being overwhelmed by beauty or significance (Hanser et al., 2022)

That second pathway, awe, is especially relevant when we think about haka or waiata. Sometimes, you aren’t crying because something is sad, but instead crying because it’s powerful or empowering.

Music is storytelling. In Aotearoa, haka and waiata carry deep cultural meaning, expressing whakapapa, identity, and shared histories. When a rōpū performs, you’re listening to harmonies while engaging with language, emotion, and collective identity all at once - win win.

From a scientific perspective, this creates a multi-layered emotional experience, combining auditory processing with meaning-making and social connection. These layers overlap, and can intensify emotional responses (Koelsch, 2014). That’s why cultural music can feel especially moving.

Even in shared spaces, think concerts, halls, arenas; music creates deeply personal experiences. The brain links music with memory and past emotional states, which is why the same song can evoke completely different responses in different people (Schaefer, 2017). This means that when a harmony gives you goosebumps or a lyric brings tears to your eyes, it often can link to your own experiences, identity, and connection to it, rather than the music itself.

Music reminds us that emotions are important.

It helps us:

• Process complex feelings
• Connect with others
• Express identity
• Tell stories that words alone cannot

So the next time haka gives you chills, or a harmony brings you to tears, remember that it is your brain, body, and identity responding all at once to something so deeply human.

Kaiya Cherrington and Alex Quinlan

Hanser, W. E., ter Bogt, T. F. M., Van den Tol, A. J. M., Mark, R. E., & Vingerhoets, A. J. J. M. (2022). Everyday crying over music: Associations with personality, empathy, and musical engagement. Musicae Scientiae, 26(1), 171–189. https://doi.org/10.1177/1029864920981110

Juslin, P. N., Barradas, G. T., & Eerola, T. (2022). From sound to significance: Exploring the mechanisms underlying emotional reactions to music. Cognition, 218, 104887. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2021.104887

Koelsch, S. (2014). Brain correlates of music-evoked emotions. Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 15(3), 170–180. https://doi.org/10.1038/nrn3666

Mori, K., & Iwanaga, M. (2017). Two types of peak emotional responses to music: The psychophysiology of chills and tears. Scientific Reports, 7, 46063. https://doi.org/10.1038/srep46063

Sauvé, S. A., Stewart, S. L., Pearce, M. T., & Vuvan, D. T. (2017). Effects of pitch and timing expectancy on musical emotion. Psychomusicology: Music, Mind, and Brain, 27(4), 282–296. https://doi.org/10.1037/pmu0000198