Why Are We Attracted to Sad Music?

Dr. Sandra Garrido is a researcher in music psychology, a pianist and violinist, and the mother of two small boys. After completing her PhD at the University of New South Wales, Australia, she spent several years in research at the Melbourne Conservatorium of Music and the Australian Research Council’s Centre of Excellence for the History of Emotions. She is currently a Dementia Research Fellow at the MARCS institute for Brain, Behaviour and Development at Western Sydney University. She has authored over 30 academic publications and co-authored a book entitled My Life As A Playlist (2014).

“Garrido has written a book that is interesting and provides the reader with numerous studies that discuss attraction to sad music. The book is a valuable resource in the study of psychology, especially when a person is suffering from depression. The insight provided in regards to the link between listening to sad music, depression, nostalgia and rumination is fascinating.” (Hennie Weiss, metapsychology online reviews, metapsychology.mentalhelp.net, Vol. 21 (38), September, 2017)“Why Are We Attracted to Sad Music? is fresh, erudite, and exhaustively researched. A great strength of the work is its breadth of scholarship. … In addition to psychologists, the book will also be of interest to emotion researchers, philosophers of aesthetics, and musicologists. … In summary, Garrido offers an expansive, exhaustively researched dissertation on sad music acrossa range of disparate literatures.” (J. Ian Norris, PsycCRITIQUES, Vol. 62 (22), May, 2017)

• 1. Chapter 1 – Introduction.- 2. Chapter 2 – What Is Sad Music?.- 3. Chapter 3 – The Philosophical Debate.- 4. Chapter 4 – Physiological Effects of Sad Music.- 5. Chapter 5 – A Historical Overview of Music and Mood Regulation.- 6. Chapter 6 – The Role of Sad Music in Mood Regulation.- 7. Chapter 7 – Individual Differences in the Attraction to Sad Music.- 8. Chapter 8 – Mood Regulation Disorders: An Exception to Mood Management Theory?.- 9. Chapter 9 – Musical Prescriptions: Do They Work.- 10. Chapter 10 – Listening Context: Group Rumination and Emotional Contagion.- 11. Chapter 11 – Nostalgia and Mixed Emotions in Response to Music.- 12. Chapter 12 – The Addiction of Love: Sad Music and Heartbreak.- 13. Chapter 13 – The Role of Sad Music in Grief.- 14. Chapter 14 – Towards a Model for Understanding Sad Music Listening.- References.