I think emotive interpretation is largely tied to human imitation.
There's a lot of complex interpretation of the human voice that I'm not going to explore - the associations of sighs, mumbles, jeers, cries, laughter - but instruments can mimic it to evoke similar responses in the listener, so it might mimic what we understand as a sad voice.
There's a physical imitation through movement, largely tied to the tonal system(s) the listener is immersed in. For us, sustained tones, long durations, sparse densities, or downward movement (like a descending glissando) might indicate the gravity and torpor of sadness.
There's a cognitive imitation too, where we might recognize a pitch losing clarity, strained timbres, or even structural fumblings (like "missing" a note or a gradual degradation of the motif originally presented to the listener) as markers of failure, which can be sad.
Honestly I think a minor key and slow, droning instrumentals does way more to make a song depressing than the actual lyrical content. Which is why people can rock out or dance to songs like "No Son of Mine". A memory or use of a song in a film/TV show, etc. may also increase the depressing feeling.
For me it's hard to get more depressing than these two, which certainly lack lyrics:
I tend to find Requiems fairly depressing as well, of course they're typically meant to be somber funeral music.
On the other hand, it's hard not to be depressed and horrified by a song like "Stan" which I'd argue is almost entirely lyrically-driven without much drive from the music aside from the Dido part. _________________ 51 Washington, D.C. albums!
For me lyrics are the main thing that make a song depressing, but music is definitely a key factor as well. Those upbeat songs with dark lyrics can hit hard, but in a different kind of cathartic way than a slow or downcast song that manages to convey dread better.
Tha1ChiefRocka wrote:
Nice, the lyrics never resolve themself, so it's pretty negative as a whole.
This is an interesting point. This song is really dark lyrically but it has a constant theme of starting fresh that balances out the song, and the final verse seems to imply the narrator survived his demons in the end:
You cannot post new topics in this forum You cannot reply to topics in this forum You cannot edit your posts in this forum You cannot delete your posts in this forum You cannot vote in polls in this forum
