The Beauty of Sad Songs

We love them because we are human

It’s no secret.

I cry a little whenever I hear Bob Dylan’s “Girl from the North Country.” Johnny Cash’s version of “Hurt,” the song he recorded just before he died. Yep, that one, too. Warren Zevon recorded “Keep Me in Your Heart” when he was dying. That always gets me. Then there’s “Jolene” by Ray LaMontagne, and “Call it Dreaming” by Iron and Wine, although that song is more of a postcard for honest sentiment, it still makes me tear up.

Good tears, though.

All of us lean into sad songs. And it appears it’s not because we are sad or depressed, necessarily, but instead because we are human.

A new study outlined in a recent New York Times article suggests that “sad” songs have a dual nature. They are sad or full of melancholy, certainly, but more so they are emotively meaningful. And meaningful is what keeps us coming back.

Researchers suggest that there are cognitive mechanisms through which sadness is induced through music: rhythms connected to our heartbeats, conditioned responses to certain sounds, and triggered memories. One scientist says we might actually listen to music not for any kind of emotional reaction, but instead as a way to connect to others. And loving a sad song is not about being sad but about appreciating the connective tissue that holds humanity together, and particularly something very personal to us.

Of course, these “sad” songs do not have to have lyrics. Beethoven’s 14th piano sonata, Opus 27, Number 2—known commonly as “Moonlight Sonata”—gets me every time. And when I learned Beethoven wrote it at a time when he had become very aware that his hearing was seriously deteriorating, well, that made it even more meaningful.

Still, the right musical notes combined with poetic lyrics deliver the most powerful punch.

“A Case of You” by Joni Mitchell.

“Eleanor Rigby.”

Bruce Springsteen’s “The River.”

My mother always cried when she heard “Moon River;” my father at Louis Armstrong’s “What a Wonderful World.”

And what might be the “saddest” song every written?

Well songwriters from Jack White to James Taylor to Bob Dylan regularly have pointed to Country great George Jones’ “He Stopped Loving Her Today.” If it’s not the saddest song, it may be the best Country song ever written. The song was penned by Bobby Braddock and Curly Putman and remains at the top of survey after survey since its release in 1980 as the best and saddest song.

Whatever your go-to sad song is, listen to it, play it again and again, and revel in the fact that all of us are crying a little right along with you.

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Photo: Elijah O'Donnell