It is commonly seen that when we are in bad mood, we tend to listen to sad songs. Ever wondered why do we choose sad songs over happier ones when we feel down? It is because they speak about incidences, which we have experienced and express the emotions that we are feeling. Making us feel instantly better as someone else out there has gone through a similar situation.

Happy music does not help your mood instead it will leave you feeling worse. This is because sad music is like a sensitive person consoling you, while happy music is like a perky person constantly telling you to smile when you are just getting irritated. Happy music tends to become trite and boring.

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Benefits of listening to sad songs

• It consoles us that there is nothing wrong in how we are feeling. That it is completely normal what we are feeling, making it easier to move on.

• It provides release from negative emotions. These emotions surface while listening to sad music and it becomes easy to vent them, lessening tension and stress.

• Sad music does not pose any immediate direct threat which we usually experience in our day-to-day life.

• Another reason why people enjoy sad music is because it produces prolactin hormone. This hormone has psychological effect and has a consoling and calming effect, preventing the grief to escalate.

• Even when we are not sad, listening to sad music will produce prolactin hormone resulting in more pleasant state.

• Listening to sad music can help in releasing the bottled up emotions and have a good cry. It helps with process the past event, resolving it and come to a positive conclusion.

Research on listening to sad music

One of the studies on this matter observes that listening to sad music will not only evoke sadness, but also positive emotions. It is also observed that people with more empathy favor listening to sad music.

An experiment was performed by Jon Rottenberg and Sunkyung Yoon on seventy-six women, half of them were diagnosed with clinical depression. Only women were involved because it is seen that men are less depressed than women. It was observed that depressed women choose sad music, but after listening to the song they would feel much better and calm.

Playing sad music can have two outcomes: First it can have cleansing and peaceful effect, lifting your mood up. Second you may start obsessing and deeply think about your emotions, feeling forced to relive the unpleasant moments of life. What is important is to know a difference between natural grieving and rumination. Sad music can become a fuel of desire to overcome sad situation.