Listen: why we love a sad song

‘Everybody Hurts’ by REM has been named the saddest song of all time!

Music lovers have declared the 1992 track as the ultimate tearjerker, ahead of ‘Nothing Compares 2 U’ by Sinead O’Connor and Eric Clapton’s ‘Tears in Heaven’. Whitney Houston’s ‘I Will Always Love You’ and ‘Yesterday’ by The Beatles completed the top five.

Almost half (48 per cent) believe a tune can have a huge impact on their mood but we don’t have to be miserable to tune in to something sad – just to be feeling a bit nostalgic. More than a third (36 per cent) say they tune into something sad  when they are feeling that way and 24 per cent have tear jerkers on rotation following a break-up.

The research was commissioned by Earex, the ear care brand, who have teamed up with Professor Rupert Till, Professor of Music at the University of Huddersfield, and Chair of the International Association for the Study of Popular Music.

Aston spoke to Professor Rupert Till.

Photo by Bogomil Mihaylov on Unsplash