How Listening to Sad Songs Can Make You Happy?

I was in 9th standard and on the way to tuition class on my bicycle. Suddenly a sad song came up in my shuffled playlist ( headphones on ), then I raced with motorcycles, broke the lax traffic rules and ended up feeling energised when I reach the coaching centre.

The song was Tujhe Bhula Diya (The English cover is “Can’t Forget You”) from the movie Anjaana Anjaani. It was the original version which is at an even slower pace, not the remix one.

I did not give much thought to it back then. But after that experience, when I came back home and thought about it, I wanted to do it more. From then onwards, whenever I play sad songs, they make me happy, energised and fulfilled instead of the melancholy vibes that most people get from such music.

It is in how I perceive those songs that makes my life much more enjoyable. The list below is exhaustive, but the lessons are not!

Music is a way of telling a story which may or may not be fiction.

When listening to a sad song, you may think there are so many people out there who think their life is hard and unfair. That is where the musician has fulfilled the purpose by sparking that strong emotion in you.

If a song touches your heart and makes you reflect on your life, which rarely happens, it is difficult to forget that melody.

But once you stop paying attention to how closely they depict real life, you realise it is not all bad.

Mostly the songs are a work of fiction because let’s face it; real life is more struggle than enjoyment. So describing someone’s real-life in music is way harder than explaining someone’s break-up in a fictional romantic movie. “Give Me Some Sunshine” from “3 Idiots” is one of the songs that also motivate me a lot.

You learn from the mistakes.

When you are so absorbed when listening to a song, you talk to yourself, “This is never gonna happen to me.” It is rare, but you feel it only when you listen with good quality headphones in silence.

Yes, some people can be that picky when it comes to music. Those are the people who pay for music streaming services and never share their credentials for a straightforward reason: “recommendations are user-specific. A self-aware person wants to tailor his taste from his experiments and choices, not by someone else using their account and messing the homepage feed.” That’s why some friends think I am rude when I don’t share my account credentials for a subscription service.

I am paying the subscription provider to show recommendations based on my preference, and if I share the credentials with anyone, the whole subscription money is waste.

It has a calming effect on your mood.

From the daily hustle, you need some relaxation to tone you down and bring your energy back to normal. Sad songs help with that.

Before going to sleep, I listen to slow-pace songs to trigger the sleep onset. You won’t even realise how quickly you fell asleep if you use some music in the starting for some time!

Chill vibes in the morning.

Imagine the neighbour’s rooster crowing in the morning when you are enjoying your dream. I want a superpower to destroy such distraction just by cursing them. Instead of such noise, a piece of soft instrumental music works well to pull you from the bed.

Even the default alarms in our phones are soothing ones. The noisy ones are the ones that we set to make sure it burns our ears in the morning to throw us from the bed, which is not the right way to wake up refreshed!

Final words

I listen to lots of EDM, and they are fast-paced, upbeat songs. But often I experiment with sad songs too.

Especially when I want to give my time solely to music, I listen to slow-paced songs to do some self-reflection and appreciate the journey that is life.

Imagine they aren’t real, learn from the emotions the artist is showing with music, and you will feel your life isn’t that unfair!

This blog belongs to a series of posts I am publishing in this 100-days streak. Navigate to the end of article 22, for the references from day 23 onwards. If you would like to read before day 22, here is the first one that documents them in the end.

~ Sanjeev