You are what you fill your life with, and whether you know it or not sad music is messing with you more than what meets the eye. Everyone can appreciate a sad song from time to time, when the time and place is correct, that is, beyond that however is truly when it begins to mess with your mood and thoughts.Â
Consider a typical college student who frequently listens to music, while studying, walking to class, or even slumping through a class. Music surrounds us on a daily basis. If all that’s blasting through your headphones is “Scott Street” by Phoebe Bridgers, it’s more likely for your thought process to linger towards more depressing subjects than if you were to play “House Tour” by Sabrina Carpenter, on repeat. Both genres of pop music, but game changes in how a person may go throughout their day. A sad song pushes us to a negative mood in which we only pull and remember the downsides of our day. Alternatively if someone were to fill their playlists only with upbeat music the chances of them recalling only the negative portions of their day is increasingly more slim.Â
This idea is not new either, music is directly connected with our brain functioning. Through studies conducted between happy and sad music, it was shown that sad music promoted much more mind wandering than happy music. (NIH) Mind wandering in which people often can fall into cycles of letting their day wander off as well. When sad music is so prominent, it only makes it harder to break our habits of something so comforting. It’s an unfortunate case, the easiest solution to the daily blues is at the tip of our tongues, yet most people are unable to understand where it is coming from and how it is possible to fix it. Well, luckily there’s quite a few recommendations uploading from my spotify to yours.
When in doubt, play Rihanna, a classic, upbeat, never does you wrong. “Disturbia” can get you pumped before you even blink, and “Shut Up and Drive” can kick that rush into gear to start your day. Not looking for Rihanna? Well, hot take, but ok, maybe throw on Tate McRae; not only did she recently star in the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show, but her new killer hit, “Housewife,” lives on repeat in my dorm hall personally. The sound that’s been pushing us through the home stretch of finals, per say. Say that’s a bit of a jump, though; maybe you need a solid in between, a way to acclimatize to happier music from only sad beats. Olivia Rodrigo sounds just up the alley, though she’s definitely fallen into the sad trap a few times; her newest album “you seem pretty sad for a girl so in love” has dropped killer hits such as “stupid song,” “maggots for brains,” and “expectations”. This goes to show that, regardless of whether these songs end up being the game changer for someone or not, there are millions of options out there, hundreds of genres, and tons of artists. So yes, even though it’s the season for sad songs, think further about how you’re going to handle this beyond just the song before you click play.