![]() It is a complex bodily and neural state, resulting in feelings of low energy, social withdrawal, low self-worth, and a sense of limited horizon of the future ( Harter and Jackson, 1993 Damasio, 1999 Mee et al., 2006 Hervas and Vazquez, 2011). Sadness results from a perceived loss, such as the loss of a valued object, the loss of health, the loss of status or of a relationship, or the loss of a loved one. As is the case with other negative emotions, the importance of sadness throughout human history and across cultures can be explained through the evolutionary advantage that it confers ( Ekman, 1992). It is one of the six basic emotions (along with fear, happiness, anger, surprise, and disgust) and it results in feelings that most humans prefer not to experience. Sadness in everyday life, however, is hardly pleasant. Sad-sounding motifs even permeate many modern-day American pop songs ( Schellenberg and von Scheve, 2012). ![]() ![]() Folk music, such as the Portuguese Fado ( Nielsen et al., 2009) or the Irish Lament ( O’Neill, 1910), often expresses sadness and grief. Classical music exhibits the phenomenon abundantly. The phenomenon is seen across cultures and art forms. The ancient Greeks were known for staging tragedies that were widely popular to this day, films and novels that deal with heartache and despair become bestsellers and garner critical attention. Humans have long devoted effort and attention to the making and consuming of art that portrays and conveys misery. Further exploration of the neural mechanisms through which stimuli that usually produce sadness can induce a positive affective state could help the development of effective therapies for disorders such as depression, in which the ability to experience pleasure is attenuated. ![]() We also review neuroimaging studies related to music and emotion and focus on those that deal with sadness. Sadness evoked by music is found pleasurable: (1) when it is perceived as non-threatening (2) when it is aesthetically pleasing and (3) when it produces psychological benefits such as mood regulation, and empathic feelings, caused, for example, by recollection of and reflection on past events. We offer a framework to account for how listening to sad music can lead to positive feelings, contending that this effect hinges on correcting an ongoing homeostatic imbalance. Why is it, then, that while human survival depends on preventing painful experiences, mental pain often turns out to be explicitly sought through music? In this article we consider why and how sad music can become pleasurable. ![]() Compared to other art forms, music has an exceptional ability to evoke a wide-range of feelings and is especially beguiling when it deals with grief and sorrow. Here, we focus on the fact that music regarded as sad is often experienced as pleasurable. In an aesthetic context, however, sadness is often associated with some degree of pleasure, as suggested by the ubiquity and popularity, throughout history, of music, plays, films and paintings with a sad content. Sadness is generally seen as a negative emotion, a response to distressing and adverse situations. Brain and Creativity Institute, Dornsife College of Letters Arts and Sciences, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA. ![]()
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