Is listening to sad music a good option when you're in grief?

Zee Media Bureau

London: Numerous studies conducted over time have concluded music to be healing in situations of emotional and/or mental stress.

Many people do resort to music when they feel low, sad or depressed, because it is soothing and makes you feel calm and at ease.

There are those few as well, who have a habit of listening to sad music when they are depressed.

But can sad music make you overcome your grief? A new study belives the answer to this is yes, but with a catch.

As per reports, researchers have found that listening to sad music is associated with three types of experiences - pleasure, comfort and pain.

Listening to sad music led to feelings of pleasure related to enjoyment of the music in some people, or feelings of comfort where sad music evoked memories in others, the findings showed.

However, a significant portion of people also reported painful experiences associated with listening to sad music, which invariably related to personal loss such as the death of a loved one, divorce, breakup, or other significant adversity in life.

"Previous research in music psychology and film studies has emphasised the puzzling pleasure that people experience when engaging with tragic art,” said lead researcher Tuomas Eerola, Professor at Durham University in England.

"However, there are people who absolutely hate sad-sounding music and avoid listening to it. In our research, we wanted to investigate this wide spectrum of experiences that people have with sad music, and find reasons for both listening to and avoiding that kind of music,” he said.

The findings were detailed in the journal PLOS ONE.

(With IANS inputs)