Beautiful Sad Music Can Help People Feel Better

The paradoxical nature of enjoying negative emotions such as sadness in the context of the arts and fiction has been widely acknowledged by philosophers from Aristotle to Schopenhauer. However, only the last decade has provided empirical evidence of this paradox in action in the domains of psychology and neuroscience and started to expose the ways in which people derive profound enjoyment from tragic films, literature, and sad music.

Central to this paradox is the functional aspects of emotions, such as sadness as an outcome of significant personal loss that results in behavioural withdrawal and anhedonia . Fiction and music may be able to operate the very machinery responsible for real-life emotions such as sadness, but since it is detached from the actual consequences, the process can lead to a dramatically different outcome.

Music that induces sadness but is nevertheless intensely enjoyed provides a striking example of this phenomenon. It is not just the fact that most cultures have a distinct category for sad music, and that listeners frequently report everyday experiences of sadness induced by sad music but these experiences are commonly described to be highly enjoyable.

What are Some of the Benefits of Listening to Sad Music?
In general, here are some of the benefits.
It regulates mood. This is one of the effects of sad music on a psycho-social level. It helps disengage from a stressful situation and focus on the music instead. Moreover, a song’s lyrics may connect with the listener’s experience. In this manner, the music helps the listener by giving a voice to the emotions the listener cannot express.

It Induces nostalgia. Sad music is a powerful trigger for memories, especially important ones. Some theories on music suggest that sad music evokes memories of the experiences related to that feeling. As Paul Hindemith, the author of A Composer’s World, wrote, it is a “tour guide of past emotions.” Some songs remind a person of a particular point in time. The effect is nostalgia – feeling a sense of happiness in reminiscing bygone times.

It can separate a sad experience from sad music. A common thread between theories on sad music is that the stimulus (the sad experience) is not an immediate threat to a person. It sets a distance between the listener and the sad experience. According to some theories, sad music helps simulate sadness in the listener. This offers a chance for the person to experience negative emotions while being disconnected from any real negative scenario. Consequently, this sets an opportunity for the person to ruminate on his/her internal grief.

It curbs grief. In ancient Greece, Aristotle theorized that tragic theater plays helped the audience purge their emotions. This process is called catharsis. The same thing is said to apply to listening to sad music. Modern research has provided a biological basis for this effect. As a person is listening to sad music, the simulation of sadness tricks the brain into releasing prolactin. This hormone is known to alleviate feelings of grief.

It encourages empathy. In general terms, empathy is experiencing what another person is experiencing. Sad music often “moves” people by expressing loneliness and painful experiences. Empathy boosts this “moving” effect by intensifying the emotional responses. Furthermore, people with a strong disposition to empathy were found to enjoy sad music more.

It offers comfort. When it is difficult to approach others, some people turn to music. In this way, music becomes an imaginary friend from whom a person seeks comfort. By regulating mood and inducing catharsis, the listener slowly begins to feel better. Listening to sad music does not necessarily produce negative effects, and in fact, does the opposite. When feeling distressed, play a sad song and experience its benefits to help feel better.