The science behind why the Prince classic ’Purple Rain’ makes you feel the way it does
“I was raised by HBO, Spielberg, and Prince,” Pedro Pascal once said. “And for me, ‘Purple Rain’ is like the most emotionally cathartic, the most musically sophisticated song that I can think of.”
The song was the centrepiece of Prince’s 1984 film Purple Rain, the semi-autobiographical story of a musician’s rise to fame in Minneapolis. A film Prince later called his “albatross”, 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.
At least, that’s what The Who’s Pete Townshend later said 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’s appeal by making the themes and messages feel both sensationalised and something you could easily resonate with.
The song is the main hook of the entire story, initially suggested as an idea by two members of Prince’s 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’s main point of catharsis.
Prince initially wrote the song after being inspired by Bob Seger, mesmerised by how some of his songs, like ‘Night Moves’ and ‘Mainstreet’, drew bigger connections with his audience. Mainly, Prince was obsessed with the idea of writing a slower song that resonated with people because they told deeply personal stories, and thus ‘Purple Rain’ was born.
Unlike most slow ballads, however, ‘Purple Rain’ has the power to evoke a deeper emotional reaction, almost like it triggers a physical response that makes you feel like you’ve 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.
The science and psychology behind this is fairly simple. For starters, because of its setup – that is, taking its time with slow arrangements and chords that immediately make you feel both melancholic and hopeful – we experience a profound sense of tension and relief, resulting in a specific type of catharsis that feels particularly satisfying because it feels earned.
When we look at what makes some of the happiest songs of all time, 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, ‘Purple Rain’ 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.
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… It’s 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 “the most emotionally cathartic, the most musically sophisticated song”, he was certainly onto something.
