How can music be sad?


During a dinner conversation with friends who had just returned from a trip to Lisbon I asked if they had heard any Fado singers while they were there. They said they’d planned to but one of their Portuguese friends told them the music was very sad so they decided to skip it. My reply was, “But if you don’t speak Portuguese, it’s not sad!” 

That was said partly as a joke because I own quite a bit of Fado music by Amalia Rodrigues, Christina Branco, Ana Moura and others and I agree with them, I don’t speak a word of Portuguese but some of those songs do indeed sound sad. 

But how is it that we are wired so that music stirs that feeling of sadness without words? Or happiness? And how universal is it?


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Like most real art, music is pretty much a universal language, even though there are of course cultural variations. Music doesn’t even need lyrics to sound sad, e.g. Tchaikovsky’s Marche Slave.

If you’re interested in this topic you’ll probably enjoy reading, "This Is Your Brain On Music."
I have a pretty interesting record in my stacks called De De Lind, named after a Playboy bunny from the ’60s. It’s pretty rare: https://www.discogs.com/De-De-Lind-Io-Non-So-Da-Dove-Vengo-E-Non-So-Dove-Mai-Andrò-Uomo-Il-Nome-Che-...
It’s fado singing set against a band that sounds like a cross between Sabbath and Deep Purple.
Music either resonates with ones senses or it doesn’t. That is just one possible way enabled by our ability to hear. All our life experiences are made possible by ones senses.
Music connects to that deeper part of your brain; the part of the brain that doesn't analyze but that simply reacts to primal stimuli.