M&M: The Twinning Effect

Music Triggers Emotions Revealing All of our Bottled-up Feelings

Amongst the different genres of music there are a lot many whose vote is for sad music! None of us like to live a sad life but is always ready to tune into a sad beat or two which is weird. Also, in times of misery and agony its natural for us to divert our attention towards something that’s cheerful and lively but people enjoy hearing songs that synchronize with their sad mood rather than seeking comfort in joyous ones.
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Music for the Soul
Music is integral to humans and there is aplenty research supporting the fact that it offers a soulful and therapeutic experience. Music has the power to trigger emotions, recollect memories, stimulate new neural connections and seek attention. Parties and celebrations are always filled with rocking music that’s comprised of fast-beat songs interspersed with a few melodious ones. There is even a journal study that shows that people love to listen to sad music when they are experiencing deep agony resulting from situations such as loss of a loved one, a job application rejected or end of a relationship. Maybe they substitute sad music in place of the lost relationship or loved one and seek solace. Individuals who are sad, unhappy, agonized or in pain too choose sad music that helps them relate to their inner sadness. Music acts as a bridge between personal experience and the outside world. We love to cling onto someone/something in terms of pain and music is this ‘something’ that helps us recover. Any of us wish to be left alone to mourn our loss and ponder upon our experience and music creates this personal space for us.

For instance, when we lose a loved one it might take weeks, months or even years to get moving. In between this time the mourner experiences all kinds of pains and feelings that is common in case of death. He/she goes through stages of denial, argument, anger, sadness and acceptance and it is in the stage of sadness that music comes to his/her rescue. The sad music and songs help the mourner feel the sadness and surrounds him/her completely. Once he/she has crossed the stage, there is no bargaining or anger but the sadness that lingers in one corner of the heart forever. Listening to sad music or songs revives all buried feeling, brings back nostalgic memories and meets the emotional requirements of the individual. The emotional trauma experienced while mourning the death of our beloved is greatly taxing and takes a toll of our health. It even makes us wonder if grief is the price we pay for the love we bestow on our beloved. Read more about this at www.firsteatright.com.

Music is an aid in times of pain. It mends our emotional well-being which is an integral part of our overall well-being. There is no doubt about this and its helpful to leave our agony and pain to the mercy of music confiding in its healing and restorative power.

An Escape from Reality
There is no doubt that each of us have tuned in to a song or two in times of hardships and negativity to get through the day. A recent study has shown that sad music makes the mind to wander which leads to realization and reflection of the self which in turn helps us feel better. Happy music is composed to make the listener happy but never is sad music composed with such a goal in mind. Even the listener feels happy and high spirited after listening to up-beat songs but always maintains a distance with sad ones only enjoying the musical experience. A happy song can make you sad if the instances from the song are only memories in your life now. But a sad song helps you relate to your experiences and events in life, you are encouraged by your life’s associations with the lyrics of the song or its concerning topic and enjoy memories that come thereafter. Its ok to listen to any genre of music but the ultimate aim must be to get out of your melancholy and look at life with a positive attitude than before.