I love listening to sad songs because with the touching lyrics that I can relate to. It gives me mixed emotions that I felt like happy or sad. I'm feeling happy because it felt like the song is written for me like its just fits what I am feeling. And I am sad because I remember all the heartaches, pain, and sorrow that I felt before. But sad songs makes me feel better. It helps me to release all the sadness that it is in my heart at the same time it makes me happy.
In addition to that I read an article entitled, "Why sad songs makes us happy" from the site popsci.com by Shaunacy Ferro. Stated that, The researchers goal is that to asked the participants to pinpoint the feelings that they experienced as wells as predict what kind of emotions they perceived while listening to a song. In a study of 44 participants, they listened to one of three lesser-known classical pieces to avoid emotional influences from memories connected to hearing the piece before in both a major and minor key. Nevertheless, the participants perceived the sad music (minor key) as tragic, but it didn't make them so miserable as they thought another person would feel. The researchers write: The listeners felt less gloomy, meditative, and miserable as well as more fascinated, dear, in love, merry, animated, and inclined to dance. When they listened to sad music compared with their actual perceptions of the same music. Part of the reason for this could be that we expect to feel sad, and thus pleased when our expectations come to pass, a phenomenon called "sweet anticipation."
Shaunacy Ferro said, "Even if the music itself is perceived as negative, and negative emotion is aroused in listeners in part, we have a tendency to experience ambivalent emotions by concurrently feeling pleased by virtue of our cognitive appraisal." I think it starts in ourselves in how we listen to a music. It's our choice if we will be sad or happy because no one directs us to feel something we don't want to feel. It could also have to do with the fact that the sadness that we feel isn't the direct result of a sad situation. Listening to someone sings about his or her sadness is a sad experience, so the sadness we feel isn't threatening to our well-being. We can just sit back and enjoy someone else's heartbreak.
In another article I read entitled, "You listen to that sad song because it makes you happy" from the site psmag.com by Sarah Sloat. Stated that, the participants felt somewhat upset but produced romantic and inspired emotions by the sad song that they have listened to. It's just that it gives us a feeling of relief that's why we kept on listening to a sad song.
Sarah Sloat said, "Emotion experienced by music has no direct danger or harm unlike the emotion experienced in everyday life. If we suffer from unpleasant emotion evoked through daily life, sad music might be helpful to alleviate negative emotion.” It's a good thing that sad song was invented. I wonder if we don't have this kind of genre. What about the those who are going through a tough break-up then sad music was not invented. But also, sad music is for everyone it's not only for brokenhearted people. By having this kind of music, it makes us express and pour out emotions more and more.