My girlfriend tends to listen to music that express how she feels at a given moment. For example, if she's feeling frustrated then the lyrics of the songs she listens will be of frustration.
Does this external agent (music) expressing her feelings actually help her deal with negative emotions (depression, frustration, anger, sadness, etc.) or does it cause more harm than good?
Are there better or worse kinds of music for helping with negative emotions?
Violent or anti-social music lyrics may provide a short-term catharsis for depression and feelings of alienation, by giving the listener the company that mysery is said to crave.
In larger doses, however, the negative emotions expressed in those songs are apt to work at ingraining the attitudes they portray in their lyrics into the minds of their listeners, thus reinforcing the feelings of depression and sometimes by validating thoughts of violence or suicide. (Shneidman and Farberow, 1994)
Sometimes, when addiction to heavy metal or rap music becomes extreme, a "media delinquency" can develop, when the music becomes an actual contributory factor in a person's thoughts, decision-making and behavior. (Pezdek & Roe, 1995)
Finally, Goleman states (1995):
To immerse oneself in angry, desperate, depressing music is a poor strategy for coping with anger, despair, and depression. Neuroscience suggests that 'brooding,' or dwelling on one’s current emotional state, is more likely to deepen the state rather than to alleviate it.
On a brief personal note, I can tell you from first-hand experience how a person's choice of music can backfire on them. My husband (now ex-) has always listened to heavy metal head-banger stuff since I've known him. When we were 20, it was not such a big deal, I guess. But as the years passed, it was like the pissed off teen rebel "I hate my parents and I'll do what I want" theme somehow stunted his emotional growth. I have long believed that the 4 to upward of 10 hours each day he has spent listening to angry, depressing anti-social lyrics as though they were a personal anthem has seriously affected his brain and the way he thinks and views himself and the rest of the world. "Hate Rock," I always called it.
So to answer the question: Yes, listening to sad music while a person is feeling sad themselves can be cathartic and is a matter of personal choice of whether to deal with their feelings that way. BUT, beware the negative effects of over-indulgence, especially in those prone to addictive behavior. (Pezdek & Roe, 1995)
The Psychology of Suicide : Edwin S. Shneidman, Norman L. Farberow, Robert E. Litman (1994)
Pezdek, K., & Roe, C. (1995). The effect of memory trace strength on suggestibility. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 60, 116-128
Goleman, D. P. (1995). Emotional Intelligence
Music can make you feel better. There are some trials showing this, I would highlight two of then:
Pleasurable emotional response to music: a case of neurodegenerative generalized auditory agnosia.
It is perhaps a type of sublimation. To quote from the book Music therapy in the treatment of adults with mental disorders
according to Noy (1967) uses of music within psychoanalytic therapy included (1)music as a means of sublimation for channeling instinctual drives in a socially acceptable manner
sublimation is a mature type of defence mechanism where socially unacceptable impulses or idealizations are consciously transformed into socially acceptable actions or behaviour, possibly converting the initial impulse in the long term.
There seems to be evidence that music can influence the emotion of the listener. For example this study found that emotion induced in the listener was the same as the emotion expressed in the music.
Lastly, to quote from the The Philosophy of Music from the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy:
Shifting focus from benefits located in the expressive work to those located in the emotional listener, the oldest suggestion is Aristotle's theory of catharsis, according which our negative emotional response to negatively expressive art results in a (positive) psychological purgation of the negative emotions (Aristotle 1987, 36-9 (ch. 6)). A less therapeutic approach is the suggestion that, since these emotions are without ‘life implications’ (that is, as discussed above, we are not sad about anything), we are able to take advantage of our responses to savor these emotions, gain an understanding of them, and be reassured that we have the capacity to feel them (Levinson 1982).
I couldn't find any studies examining specifically if listening to depressing music while depressed can be beneficial.There is an abundance of literature showing however that music in general can be beneficial for helping people with depression. It would then not surprise me if some people such as your girlfriend do find it beneficial, perhaps as a form of catharsis as proposed by Aristotle.
