Music is a part of every culture around the world. In fact, the ability to appreciate music is built into our brains, suggesting music has an evolutionary function. Many music studies look at the long ...

Source: David S. Soriano, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons Emotion, in particular sadness, has played an important role in art and music throughout human history and across human cultures. Music, ...

Sadness is generally seen as a negative emotion, but we tend to find it pleasurable in an aesthetic context. What is the nature of pleasure that people experience from listening to sad music?

Music can heal you in many ways, but nothing comes close to the salve of sad songs when you’re at your lowest. Imagine Emma, who comes home after a long and stressful day at work, dealing with tight ...

It’s that time of the year: the temperature has dropped 30 degrees to now an unpredictable back-and-forth of somewhere between 50 and 60, the sun goes down by the time it’s 6 p.m. (and I haven’t even ...

"When I wrote it, the feeling of the music was sad, but yet there was this beautiful melody that sat on top," Masterson says. Written for a string orchestra, the piece observes the conventions of ...

CNET freelancer Anthony Domanico is passionate about all kinds of gadgets and apps. When not making words for the Internet, he can be found watching Star Wars or "Doctor Who" for like the zillionth ...

When everything is going wrong, there’s nothing like listening to a few melancholy bars of your favorite sad song. Buy why do we find pleasure in sad music? If the goal is to stay upbeat, why would we ...

Composer Cliff Masterson knows how to make sorrow sublime. "When I wrote it, the feeling of the music was sad, but yet there was this beautiful melody that sat on top," Masterson says. Written for a ...

People seek out art and music that combine sadness and beauty. Scientists and artists say there's good reason why we're drawn to it. Why beautiful sadness — in music, in art — evokes a special ...