“Moody Melodies”: An Analysis of Coping Strategies Exhibited By Listeners of Sad Music

Abstract

While existing research suggests that sad music can help listeners cope with trauma, it is unclear the ways in which sad music encourages listeners to exhibit different coping strategies and how these strategies may differ between sad vocal music and sad instrumental music. In order to answer the research question “How does sadness induced by sad vocal music help listeners cope with trauma compared to sad instrumental music?”, this paper employs a directed content analysis of YouTube comments from videos of sad music with lyrics and sad music without lyrics through codes derived from coping strategies identified by the Brief-COPE Inventory. The results indicate that the most prevalent adaptive coping strategies differed between both types of music with listeners of sad vocal music primarily coping through music-induced memories and listeners of sad instrumental music primarily relying on methods of self-reflection.