Turns out, listening to sad music actually has some surprisingly beneficial effects on our well-being. A new study in the journal PLOS One studied why there’s just something cathartic about listening to sad music, a way of purging yourself of gloomy emotions. The researchers found that listening to sad songs helped people regulate negative emotions and were consoling and comforting. “The appreciation of sad music is enhanced when listeners are experiencing emotional distress, as well as among individuals with high empathy and low emotional stability,” the study says. But the most common feeling derived by a sad song is nostalgia – that bittersweet feeling of reaching for the past. So don’t be afraid to put on that prom song and have a good cry – we all get it.
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