Depressing Songs

I was watching CNN one morning & they were doing a feature on how musicians are topping charts & making some serious paper on depressing songs.so in the feature,they wanted to know why artistes have decided to do more depressing and sad music?
songs like mad world by tears to fears, i'm alive by next to normal, loose yourself by eminem  people singin along to the lyrics of these songs but its pretty dark if you look at each of these songs more in depth for what they mean other than just entertainment

Russian Roulette by Rihanna. how much more clear can it get. This song is clearly about the game of putting a revolver to your head and firing. can there be more of a depressing song and yet this song ruled the charts & was really well liked when it came out.

Bad Romance by Lady Gaga. I don't know how long ago this song came out but its still one of the most popular songs on the radio. The title tells you all you need to know that this song is not happy in meaning. having a bad romance is not a positive thing if you ask me although this song is strange and sounds happy if you listen to it,its not quite easy to tell that this song is not happy

And these are just a few examples, most popular songs have negative themes. they aren't all as sad as rihanna's or as blunt as gaga's but they are there & we seem to enjoy them which raises the big question:why?

There are obvious answers. I think that we are at a time when the lyrics in the songs mean less and less. Think of Rap music,most people love rap because of the beats & rhythm of the music but they don't really care what the artiste is saying. And pop music is similar, if the tune is catchy & the words are easy to learn it doesn't really matter what they are. But there aren't songs without words that are popular right now so maybe we just want simple lyrics that don't make us think to figure them out

Or is it that the world is in depression & we want people that relate to us? The global economy as a whole is falling to pieces, terrorism is on the rise and we are still at war and have been for years. With so much heavy stuff weighing the world down, its no wonder that artistes write their feelings into songs would be writing about sad topics.


But not every song on the radio is sad. When people aren't happy they two things; understanding & uplifting. That constitutes the other part of popular songs

Time for miracles by Adam Lambert. This song is a bit sad but it gives people hope & determination as he says he ain't giving up on love. This is what everyone wants, even in the worst of times they want to believe that they should keep faith & hope alive and since people look at celebrities for models they are positively influenced by the messages in songs like this one.

And then there's Nickleback.Nickleback's 6th studio album Dark Horse was one of their best top-selling albums. Dark Horse features hit singles like 'Never gonna be alone' 'Gotta be somebody' & 'If today was your last day'. Strange as this sounds, these songs are inspirational even though they're rock songs. they aren't kind about how they sound but they have great messages in their lyrics.

So maybe the world is a little down right now. Maybe it is affecting our media but some of us have taken charge to help uplift our spirits,give us hope and maybe someday most songs will be about joy & happiness, and we will all believe it.....