If we followed a linear logic, we would have to say that if someone is sad, what will cheer them up will be a happy song, but this is not exactly the case. In reality, when we are sad, the most common thing is that we seek comfort in a sad song. When we feel like this we secrete a hormone called prolactin, which is a natural tranquilizer and according to neuroscientist Daniel J. Levitin:
“Sadness has a physiological purpose and may be an adaptive response that helps us conserve energy and direct our priorities for the future after a traumatic event. Prolactin is released after orgasm, birth, and during lactation in women.
In such a way that if we are sad and we listen to sad songs we calm down, but not only due to the physical effect of hormones. There is also a psychological component, at times in our lives when we feel misunderstood, alone or isolated, what satisfies us the most is a song whose lyrics and sounds express exactly those feelings. In Levitin’s words:
“In the wealthy societies of the world, many adolescents feel that they do not fit in, that they are not among the popular ones. They feel lonely and alone.»
And for them the songs of alienation, marginalization and lack of empathy work both as songs of friendship that unite them with others who feel the same way, and songs of comfort, which calm those who experience these difficulties a bit.
“Good music, like good poetry, can elevate history and give it a universal meaning. Something bigger than our problems. Art moves us because it helps us connect to higher truths, to a feeling of being part of a global community, in short, about not feeling alone. That’s what the songs that comfort us are about.»
This ability of music to calm human emotions has existed in us since ancient times. So much so that it is closely related to the stimulation of certain areas of our brain. In fact, perhaps the earliest moment of our lives in which we begin to experience both the outside world and the calming power of music, may be when still in our mother’s arms we listen to a lullaby. According to the researchers, these types of songs are intended not only to calm the baby, but also the mother.
These are some examples of classic songs that, although it may not seem like it at first glance, could be comforting, precisely because they are sad:
1. “Everybody hurts”, REM
This single from the album «Automatic people» has the ability to share loneliness and disappointment, because in the end, we all hurt.
2. “I don’t wanna talk about it,” Rod Stewart
Sometimes we are so hurt that we can’t talk about it, but how we like to sing it. «I can tell by your eyes that you’ve probably been crying forever…»
3. «Going down slow,» Jeff Beck and Tom Jones
Several greats have covered this song including Led Zeppelin and Eric Clapton. It is a great blues, a genre that par excellence comforts us by letting us express our sorrows in a creative way.
4. «Blue,» Joni Mitchell
Sometimes sadness is blue, this song by Joni Mitchell is the perfect canvas to make a masterpiece with that color.
5. «Almost Blue,» Chet Baker
This epic and melancholic jazz standard in the interpretation of the trumpeter, who also sings, is ideal to subtitle sadness. Especially when almost in a whisper Baker intones: «Almost you, there’s a girl and it’s almost you…»
What sad songs make you feel better?
With information from “The World in 6 Songs” by Daniel J. Levitin