Composer Cliff Masterson knows how to make sorrow sublime. "When I wrote it, the feeling of the music was sad, but yet there was this beautiful melody that sat on top," Masterson says. Written for a ...

Even the award-winning vocalist, Jungkook, gets sad sometimes. When he does, though, this BTS member shared that the best thing to do is just “wallow in his sadness” by listening to sad music. Here’s ...

Why are humans attracted to art that combines sadness and beauty? A brain scientist says sadness has benefits like helping elicit empathy and purging negative emotion. Sadness is more than just a ...

You would think happy people would prefer to listen to happy music. Lyrics that speak to their positive mood, bringing them cheer and joy. Yet, sad music tends to have a longer-lasting appeal for many ...

Music is a part of every culture around the world. In fact, the ability to appreciate music is built into our brains, suggesting music has an evolutionary function. Many music studies look at the long ...

Sadness is generally seen as a negative emotion, but we tend to find it pleasurable in an aesthetic context. What is the nature of pleasure that people experience from listening to sad music?

People who come to therapy after experiencing a difficult breakup often mention that they have been turning to music as a source of emotional release. They sometimes ponder questions like: “Why am I ...

It’s that time of the year: the temperature has dropped 30 degrees to now an unpredictable back-and-forth of somewhere between 50 and 60, the sun goes down by the time it’s 6 p.m. (and I haven’t even ...

Composer Cliff Masterson knows how to make sorrow sublime. Take his regal, mournful adagio Beautiful Sadness, for example: "When I wrote it, the feeling of the music was sad, but yet there was this ...