We offer a framework to account for how listening to sad music can lead to positive feelings, contending that this effect hinges on correcting an ongoing homeostatic imbalance. Why is it, then, that while human survival depends on preventing painful experiences, mental pain often turns out to be explicitly sought through music? In this article we consider why and how sad music can become pleasurable. Compared to other art forms, music has an exceptional ability to evoke a wide-range of feelings and is especially beguiling when it deals with grief and sorrow. Here, we focus on the fact that music regarded as sad is often experienced as pleasurable. In an aesthetic context, however, sadness is often associated with some degree of pleasure, as suggested by the ubiquity and popularity, throughout history, of music, plays, films and paintings with a sad content. Sadness is generally seen as a negative emotion, a response to distressing and adverse situations. Brain and Creativity Institute, Dornsife College of Letters Arts and Sciences, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
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