Sad music can help heal a broken heart and ease depression. A study found that people with broken hearts prefer sad music, as it makes them feel understood. Danielle Grant listened to sad songs like "I'm Sorry" by John Denver and "When I Was Your Man" by Bruno Mars after breaking up with her boyfriend. These songs expressed her emotions and related to her situation. Over time, as her heart healed, she began listening to more upbeat songs. Sad music allows people to feel their emotions and can be a first step in overcoming depression after a breakup or other difficult life events.

1. DEPRESSION
Can Sad Music Heal Your Broken Heart?
By Madeline R. Vann, MPH Reviewedby Pat F. Bass,III, MD, MPH
Feel depression coming on now that you have a
broken heart? Pick music that expresses your
emotion, crank up the volume, and cry or sing
along. You'll feel better for it.
Sad music helped heal Danielle Grant's broken
heart.
Danielle Grant, a chemical engineering student,
put John Denver’s seriously sad “I’m Sorry” and
Bruno Mars' equally heart wrenching “When I
Was Your Man” on her playlist as she and her
longtime boyfriend went through a cycle of
breakups and reconciliations before finally
splitting up for good. Then, as she adjusted to
her broken heart, her musical choices changed,
becoming more hopeful and happy. She’s living
proof of the music-therapy research that
confirms sad music helps a broken heart — and
can be a first step in overcoming depression.
A 2013 study published in the Journal of
Consumer Research showed that people prefer
certain music based on recent experiences. For
example, a person who just had a frustrating
exchange with someone was more likely to

2. choose angry music. Likewise, those with a
broken heart chose sad music. And, according to
the research, in some cases the brokenhearted
say they would prefer to hear a weepy breakup
tune rather than cry on the shoulder of an
empathetic friend.
“Our music preferences show how social we are,”
observes study author Chan Jean Lee, PhD.
“Music we want to listen to is highly similar to the
people we want to be with. Moreover, music we
like to listen to is influenced by how we are
treated by other people.”
Mending a Broken Heart
Grant’s music choices changed as her broken
heart began to heal. But over the three months
of gradual separation, she kept her iPod with her
constantly.
“I listen to all types of music on a regular basis,
depending on my mood,” she says. “At first I was
really depressed. Music helped me through so
many situations that I actually had to listen to
my iPod for most of each day, just to get through
the depression." Her choice of Denver’s “I’m
Sorry” harkened back to when her father listened
to the same song after her parents divorced.

3. Meanwhile, the Bruno Mars song was on the
radio as Grant and her boyfriend were doing their
reconciliation-and-breakup dance, so it became
the theme for that time of her life. “Once we
broke up, that became one of my songs of
choice," she says. "It reminded me of him. It
made me hopeful that maybe he was listening to
that very song at that very moment and possibly
missing me." She also avoided songs that
reminded her of happier times with him. “Those
would make me cry, and I was already crying
enough," she says.
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Depressed
Eventually she found Taylor Swift’s album “Red,”
which became her go-to breakup music.” “It
seemed that every song on [Swift’s] album
described exactly what I was going through,"
Grant says. "I just couldn't make it through my
day without hearing a song that seemed like it
could relate to my situation. It was almost the
equivalent of talking to your best friend who had
gone through the same situation as you.”
On Key With the Study
Grant reports feeling exactly what music
therapists argue makes listening to music that
matches your mood helpful. You feel understood

4. on a deep level. That understanding provides a
release that allows you to move on.
“I eventually told myself that I needed to listen to
something more upbeat, so I did," Grant says.
"Those songs made me feel hopeful about
someday finding someone new and all the
excitement that comes along with learning all the
little details about that person." Gradually,
through those songs, Grant was able to
remember the good parts of her relationship
without feeling miserable.
The sad music that worked for Grant might not
be the same music that gives you that feeling of
being understood. You have to pick the songs
that you connect with, that express your own
experience.
And though breakups can feel like the end of the
world, they're usually only a temporary misery.
However, weeping along to sad music can be
helpful even in other difficult circumstances.
Allowing people who are facing a terminal illness
but who are not yet actively dying to listen and
cry to sad music, for instance, appears to
improve their quality of life during their last days,
according to music-therapy researcher Kay
Norton, PhD, an associate professor of music
history at the School of Music at Arizona State

5. University in Tempe. Writing in the Journal of
Medical Humanities, Norton details the benefits of
listening to sad music even when faced with
death. Those in life’s most dire straits felt
understood and were able to achieve emotional
release through music.
So, when depression strikes your broken heart,
play that sad song. It just might help you heal
and look toward better days ahead.