We can deeply love a song even if it brings us sadness, and scientists are somewhat divided on why.
Previously, researchers found that sad music might emotionally resonate with us in a positive way, perhaps through experiencing empathy or appreciating the artistic merit of the piece. Now, a study published in Public Library of Science - One suggests that we may simply find joy in experiencing the sadness evoked by such music.
Source: Klaus Vedfelt
Emery Schubert from the University of New South Wales in Australia says, "As human beings, we can't accept that there's some strange pleasure in negative emotions. But if someone says, 'I like this song because it makes me sad,' who can say they're wrong?"
Schubert had 50 participants—mostly undergraduate music majors—think about a song they liked but found sad, including works by Ludwig van Beethoven and Taylor Swift. Then, they answered an online questionnaire about the emotions they felt while listening to the song.
Next, participants tried to imagine the sadness in their chosen music being somehow eliminated. Overall, they reported enjoying it less, with 82% saying that the sadness increased their happiness.
In another part of the experiment, Schubert asked an additional 53 people—again, mostly undergraduate music majors—to identify songs they liked and found "moving." These participants generally expressed feeling sad while listening to the song, despite appreciating it.
Schubert suggests that participants may have conflated the emotions of "sadness" and "moving," thus experiencing a direct link between sadness and overall happiness. They might even use "sadness" and "moving" to describe the same or closely related feelings.
However, Jonna Vuoskoski from the University of Oslo in Norway suggests that if listeners empathize, the sadness expressed by the artist may trigger feelings of being moved. People may also resonate with the lyrics of sad songs, which helps them feel less alone in their experiences and prevents them from suppressing their emotions.
Tuomas Eerola from Durham University in the UK doubts whether people can "eliminate" sadness from songs typically considered sad. "The entire study is based on an assumption that listeners can perfectly dissect every reason they love music."
Related paper information: https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0299115
