Use of sad music in video production can set the right atmosphere and emotions while smoothing over transitions between emotional scenes. A delicate piano or gentle violin may elicit strong feelings in viewers that draw them closer to a character they care about.
Researchers have revealed that many factors can contribute to our positive reaction to sad music, such as personality traits, social context, and learned associations.
Emotive
Sadness is one of the basic human emotions, and can be captured musically using slow rhythms with low tones, lyrics that speak to sadness or nostalgia and lyrics that convey feelings associated with sadness. Royalty free sad music can be an excellent tool for creatives trying to evoke specific moods in their work; combined with other styles of music it can even create more complex emotional responses such as those heard when saying: “I have got the blues”. Other instruments typically associated with sounding sad include piano and violin.
Some Youtubers opt to address the camera directly and share personal stories that have made them feel emotionally vulnerable in order to connect with viewers and establish rapport. When combined with royalty free sad music such as piano or violin lilts and melodic strings, such stories can truly hit home with viewers, drawing them in as they become invested in what’s being told.
People often associate sad music with dramatic film trailers, as it helps set the scene for any potential plot twists that may lie ahead. Sad music also lends itself well to scenes dealing with major emotional challenges like death, grief or other sad topics. PremiumBeat provides an extensive library of sad royalty free beats that are ideal for such projects; their search engine makes finding one quickly.
Nostalgic
Nostalgic music doesn’t have a set formula; but there are several key strategies you can employ to achieve its nostalgic atmosphere. Limit the energy in your track and use longer note lengths; additionally, try using emotive chords or melodies with easy memory hooks so as to elicit nostalgia in listeners.
Nostalgia is an emotional experience characterized by longing for things in the past that no longer exist, whether pleasant or painful memories come flooding back. People can experience nostalgic feelings both when happy and when sad; it all depends on how their brain processes memories.
Music that creates a nostalgic mood can bring back childhood and hometown memories, or be triggered by specific events and experiences. Repetitive songs may stir feelings of homesickness, joy, sorrow or regret and can provide social functions by uniting lives into greater coherence and meaning – for instance Paul McCartney’s “Yesterday” or Van Morrison’s “Brown-Eyed Girl”. These nostalgic tracks serve as examples for this kind of effect in society at large – two such examples being Paul McCartney’s “Yesterday” or Van Morrison’s “Brown-Eyed Girl”, both nostalgic classics that provide social functions by stitching people’s lives together more cohesively than before – both Paul McCartney penned their classic versions from their respective artists!
During the COVID lockdown, many turned to nostalgic music as a means of managing uncertainty about its spread. According to research, listening to this type of music can boost one’s mood significantly – this approach may be especially effective when feeling down. In this study, participants were required to fill out several online questionnaires related to their general wellbeing and life impairment during a lockdown period. They were also instructed to complete a nostalgic music listening task of their choosing before providing demographic data. Researchers could thus effectively control for factors that might skew results. Questionnaires included two research questions about nostalgic music experience and its functions; both questions were presented randomly to avoid bias from musical tasks or demographic questions, respectively. Figshare hosted this questionnaire.
Emotional
Sad music has the ability to bring back nostalgic memories, often leading to feelings of peace and hope. Our brains respond to these nostalgic events as if they were actual events that require consolation, making us happy and soothed. Researchers suggest this may explain why some people enjoy listening to sad music even though it makes them cry; it acts like an imaginary friend who understands their situation and comforts them with its lyrics. Furthermore, sad music may help our bodies release prolactin (a hormone which reduces feelings of grief).
Not everyone enjoys listening to sad music; for some it may even make them more depressed. People may associate its somber tones with painful experiences like divorce and loss; making it harder for them to enjoy the songs as intended.
Mood
Sad music often conjures the emotion of sadness – one of four basic human emotions – by using soundscapes that convey feelings of sorrow or grief, as well as written lyrics that do so as well. Blues music in particular is known for conveying this sentiment; indeed we use “I’ve got the blues” as an idiomatic way to describe feeling sad or depressed.
Sad music varies based on its context and content of videos. When someone shares an emotionally charged past experience on social media, slow-paced songs might add depth to their tale. On the other hand, using piano or cello music as background for videos of deceased loved ones might provide the appropriate touch.
Many videos created to share personal experiences are designed to connect emotionally with viewers, creating an emotional link. Selecting royalty-free sad music from PremiumBeat will further this sentiment; an emotive string section can draw them in, drawing their focus to each word of a speaker’s story while an emotive piano can create the depth of tragedy for which these stories stand as testament.
Royalty-free sad music can be an effective tool for altering the atmosphere of any project, from film trailers and documentaries about tragic events, to poetry recitals or personal testimony videos. When exposed to sad music, our bodies produce prolactin, which helps ease grief and reduce mental strain.