Sydney Hackenberg | staff writer

If you look at my Spotify Wrapped from the last couple of years, you would see Phoebe Bridgers and Billie Eilish at the top of my charts. However, there is an important distinction I should make about Eilish’s music: I’m referring to “Halley’s Comet” and “Happier Than Ever,” not “You Should See Me in a Crown.” There’s a clear difference in her music, and I want you to understand the depths I was in at the time.

2022 through 2024 was a complicated time in my life. We were on the back end of the pandemic, but I was starting high school, dealing with my parents divorce and trying to figure out who I was. For a 15-year-old kid I was certainly dealing with some loaded topics, and frankly I would not go back to that era of my life.

Nowadays, I see my friends listen to sad music, only to fall further into whatever kind of slump they might be in. This kind of behavior can be called maladaptive music listening, according to a 2022 article published in “Psychology of Music.” And I can’t help but think, is it the music that’s making it worse or the listeners?

When I look back to those days in high school, I didn’t see my music as bringing me down — regardless of the “late night crying” playlist that was often on shuffle.

Through all of this, music was my safe haven. Whether it was singing in choir with my friends, going to my dance classes every night or just popping my AirPods in to distract myself, music was always an invisible shoulder for me to lean on.

Many times, the music we listen to is a reflection of how we currently feel and has strong mood regulating properties. We all have our “go-to” songs for any situation compiled into an oddly specific playlist; these songs represent what we can’t always find the words to.

An article written by Shahram Heshmat in Psychology Today described the lesser-known effects that music has on the human body; it mimics the same feelings we may experience eating our favorite meal or spending time with a significant other. It makes sense why we gravitate toward music so often. More often than not, we are pulled into listening to particularly sad music through its key characteristics — the slower tempo, minor key and lower range.

For me, sad music emits a numbing feeling, but it is also just comforting to hear someone make music about a specifically hurtful time in their life that might mirror mine at a specific moment.

Music isn’t as simple as just pressing play. It acts as a catharsis, a way to relieve heavy emotions. according to a video from The Ohio State University music professor David Huron, As we listen more, the prolactin hormone is released, making the listening experience immersive. Remember the aforementioned term, maladaptive music listening? This form of listening forces us to hold onto whatever pain we are currently experiencing, making it relatively impossible to cope.

It’s not so much the music that makes the listener feel sad. Some listeners are simply unable to enjoy the music past its melancholic nature. My early high school years were filled with maladaptive listening, where I was constantly yearning for music to relate to and neglecting to work through my problems.

I know I’m not the only one to fall into these listening cycles. Pulling ourselves out of the depths of our sadness is extremely difficult when the music we are constantly listening to is releasing hormones to make us even more sad.

There are benefits to listening to sad music though, and not in the way I would have thought. Nicole Jorge, president of the Music Therapy Student Association, describes the benefits sad music can have on patients in hospitals. Specifically in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, slower music — typically songs with a sad connotation — is played to help babies regulate their breathing and heartbeat.

“We utilize music as a way to serve different goals. A steady beat keeps the body steady too, because we follow the beat,” Jorge said.

Music therapy offers an entirely new perspective on the debate of the benefits and possible detriments of sad music.

Music has so many more aspects than what we pick out as listeners and we often miss the bigger picture.

“People only look for certain parts. The music may sound happy, but the lyrics are more sad,” Jorge said. She said she listens to lyrics more to relate to certain songs.

The job of a music therapist is to keep all these ideas in mind to help clients reach a certain objective. To help with speech, a client’s beloved song would be played to help them try to speak. In memory care, nostalgic songs are played to help with the clients memories they might have forgotten. Sad music isn’t a genre that music therapists try to avoid.

Music is music, and it is entirely based on what is going to help the client achieve their goals.

What we listen to is complex. Is sad music really the only thing we should be listening to? I don’t think it would be beneficial for me personally, but there are certainly other people who benefit from the melodic structure of sad music.

We know ourselves best; listen to whatever will be helpful to you and the stage of life you are in.

So, if you are really feeling like listening to Phoebe Bridgers on repeat, go for it. I won’t stop you. She may not be someone I can listen to on repeat, but music is incredibly complex. “Graceland Too” might be just the thing someone needs to keep them out of bed, but it has the opposite effect on me.

Sydney Hackenberg can be reached at hackenbergs@duq.edu