Sunday, July 19, 2009

Why Do I Love Sad Songs?

I'm not sure exactly why, but I sure do.  In fact, a really good heartbreaker is my favorite kind of song.  I guess they just make me feel like a person.  Which is great because that makes me feel alive and I'm pretty glad to be alive.  Maybe sometimes it can be comforting when I'm in a difficult situation to listen to someone else who's in a difficult situation too.  Maybe it brings things into perspective to realize that there are other people in the universe and they don't all feel exactly the way I do.   

I don't know.  What I do know is that songs like "How Do You Keep Love Alive" and "Say Hello Goodbye" never get old to me.  

If I think hard enough about it, I would probably have to say that the reason I seem to be so drawn to these songs may be because sad songs are probably the most authentic songs written.  Love songs are just so dang marketable. That's why there's a billion of them and many of them seem cheap and fake.  You just never hear an A and R guy telling his artist  "man there's just not enough pain in these tunes bro".  Heartbreak is not flattering.  So it seems more likely that someone willing to sing about it may actually be heartbroken.  And though I'm not apposed to fiction, I still want to feel like I'm hearing a person and not just what someone feels like they're supposed to say.

Once again, I don't know. I just love' em.

9 comments:

  1. Bonnie Raitt: "I Can't Make You Love Me."

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  2. I couldn't agree more, the songs I go back to over and over are the real ones, the ones that express the vulnerability and risk that comes with this life.

    I was asking this same question a few days ago and pondering the inability of our culture to open up and be vulnerable with each other except through the format of music. Having a mutually open and vulnerable moment with one another seems almost impossible. Which leads me back to why sad songs appeal to me so much, because it's these sad songs that offer me that moment of connection with another human being, the same kind of momment I wish to have with my everyday people in my everyday world.

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  3. Some of my favorite sad songs: "The Sun Also Sets" and pretty much every song on Love Is Hell by Ryan Adams; "Smoke" -Ben Folds 5(good girlfriend breakup song); "Blood Bank" -Bon Iver; "Communication", "Couldn't Care Less" -The Cardigans; "My Mom" -Chocolate Genius (heartbreaking story of his mom going senile); "Alison" -Elvis Constello; "Ms. Anne Thrope" -Honeydogs (as a dad this song always gets me "Wish I could hear your voice on the phone, cuz I don't know if I'm coming home. Please don't let the children cry."); "Forget Her" -Jeff Buckley

    OK this list is getting too long...

    -Kyle Campos

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  4. writing from the heart is the issue. you hit the nail on the head.

    "sad songs" are usually written from a point of experience and a full heart. that's why i think we connect with them. they cant be conjured up though. they have to flow.

    it's sort of like writing blogs, books, or speaking. you can tell when someone is bringing content that comes from the heart.

    thats why i love your song "how He loves"

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  5. i'd hardly say blood bank by bon iver is a sad song. but his music is just so dang sad that even his happier songs are like this terribly wonderful pain.

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  6. sad songs say so much...
    they are my favorite genre. many times my friends or family have complained, ugh, your music is so depressing! and i try to veer to happier tunes, and they make it in my queue occasionally, but nothing hits home like you said like melancholy! i think it might have to do also with maybe identifying with the broken hearted, being called to the downtrodden...
    "i still cry" julie miller
    "top of the world" patty griffin
    "love hurts" emmylou , gram ; "hickory wind"
    "i'm so lonesome i could cry" hank

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