Music is “enjoyed” or “liked” by a listener. These are the vocabulary words that people use when referring to music. They say, “did you like that song.” Or they say, “What kinds of music do you enjoy. So it seems odd that some people enjoy listening to sad music. What does this say about people and humanity in general? Do we like being sad? This is the problem that Stephen Davies proposes to answer in his essay, “Why listen to sad music if it makes one feel sad?” (Davies, 394). This is the problem that Davies proposes to answer. While his answer deals with the problem very will in one perspective, his thoughts are by no mean sweeping and they maybe ignore the primary reason that people listen to sad music.
Davies points out that it is not just sad music that people listen to but that they also consume sad works of art. Many times I have seen fine art photography that depicts poverty. It is interesting that people find art within this. Davies separates art from entertainment by the criteria that art is something that must be worked at to understand. Often happy music wears it’s happy emotions on its musical sleeve, so that there is very little that needs to be worked at to understand it. But sad music and sad artwork is sometimes a more difficult nut to crack. This is Davies’ primary solution to the problem—that sad music is listened to because people enjoy the depth it takes them to and listeners enjoy the task of trying to understand it.
Davies also relates to the fact that sometimes life is difficult, yet still enjoyed in spite of that difficulty and sometimes because of it since; so to speak, it takes the rain sometimes to appreciate the sunshine. Rewards, Davies argues, require efforts and this effort that it takes to understand is why we enjoy even said music. He writes, “But to love music from the late eighteenth-century, say, is to be interested in understanding all such music if it rewards the effort required” (Davies, 394).
The secondary argument that Davies employs is the relation of the many difficult aspects of life, that simply cannot be avoided if one is to live as a person within the world, “Loss, deprivation, pain, struggle and discomfort—all are part of life. Sometimes these things are avoidable’ sensible navigators on the ocean of existence give rocky outcrops a wide berth” (Davies, 393).
But what Davies fails to mention is the relational nature of sad music and art. Many songs, it seems most of them; deal with the fact that love sometimes goes wrong. Relationships don’t always work out and hearts break. There is a part of human nature that feels better about it’s own struggles if it can recognize these struggles in others. Davies makes the claim that sad music is often more enjoyable than happy music. But if one listens to popular music, this does not seem to be the case. Much of this music is pretty simple, but still enjoyed. It basically is sung as, “I love this person, but [he or she] does not love me so now I am hurting. This, and not the joy of unlocking a complicated musical composition seems to be the primary motive that people have for listening to sad music.
Works Cited
Stephen, Davies. “Why Listen to Sad Music if It Makes You Sad” Musical meaning and Expression. (Ithaca: Cornell Up, 1994) 307-319
