4 ms·

Maybe I’m wrong but broken heart sad seems a lot more transient than older generations of sad music like, say, Pink Floyd’s The Wall and The Final Cut. I would

Maybe I’m wrong but broken heart sad seems a lot more transient than older generations of sad music like, say, Pink Floyd’s The Wall and The Final Cut. I would wager it’s really not a problem.

coldtea 8y ago
Floyd have their own broken heart sad songs (Wish you where here, nobody home, and lotsa others). Though the Final Cut was a flop, and barely listened to/mentioned today, so kind of transient itself. But of course tons of 70s and 60s era music are "broken heart sad" as well -- it's not like some unique today phenomenon. Broken heart sad takes a good 50% of all songs since time immemorial... If anything, today it's not "broken heart sad" anymore, but some hip-hop/pop version of "how cool/rich I am" or "how badass I am", looking at the charts.
- rednerrus 8y ago
  Wish you were here is not a broken heart sad song. It's about disillusionment.
  - coldtea 8y ago
    Not broken heart from a lover, but broken heart about a friend. Still a broken heart.
    - ArrayList 8y ago
      Let's be clear, it's about Syd Barrett.
    - gb221 8y ago
      Syd Barrett supposedly
- Bartweiss 8y ago
  On the other hand, I'd be tempted to say The Final Cut was a flop precisely because it was so relentlessly bleak. It's not even sad so much as hopeless, like The Wall with all the angry and optimistic parts distilled away. Two Suns in the Sunset is so desolate that it's tough to follow with any other music at all. The mood where that's relatable is way out past sad, which does it no favors selling copies or landing on playlists I agree that it's not really a generational thing, though. Timbuk3 landed one big hit (The Future's So Bright), and it was a sarcastic song about nuclear war that landed unironic play on graduation playlists. Their other, overtly depressing stuff got no traction at all. Rap, punk, and most any other genre has similarly hopeless, unromantic sad songs - they're just not approachable enough to top charts or endure in people's memories.
jerf 8y ago
Yeah, there's definitely a difference between "I'm sad because my baby ran around town" (say, Runaround Sue [1]) and "I'm sad because my romantic relationship broke down and that's just an example of the fundamental existential horror of being a living human that none can ever escape from and nothing will ever improve because we're fundamentally and irrevocably trapped" (The Wall). [1]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4NQLmUOgT5M https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4NQLmUOgT5M
Bartweiss 8y ago
I think that sort of sad is still around, although I agree that Floyd was a rather special case of a popular chart-topping band putting it out. There's definitely a difference between broken heart sad and what I'd maybe call depression sad or ennui sad.

Maybe I’m wrong but broken heart sad seems a lot more transient than older generations of sad music like, say, Pink Floyd’s The Wall and The Final Cut. I would wager it’s really not a problem.

coldtea 8y ago

Floyd have their own broken heart sad songs (Wish you where here, nobody home, and lotsa others). Though the Final Cut was a flop, and barely listened to/mentioned today, so kind of transient itself. But of course tons of 70s and 60s era music are "broken heart sad" as well -- it's not like some unique today phenomenon. Broken heart sad takes a good 50% of all songs since time immemorial... If anything, today it's not "broken heart sad" anymore, but some hip-hop/pop version of "how cool/rich I am" or "how badass I am", looking at the charts.

rednerrus 8y ago
Wish you were here is not a broken heart sad song. It's about disillusionment.
- coldtea 8y ago
  Not broken heart from a lover, but broken heart about a friend. Still a broken heart.
  - ArrayList 8y ago
    Let's be clear, it's about Syd Barrett.
  - gb221 8y ago
    Syd Barrett supposedly
Bartweiss 8y ago
On the other hand, I'd be tempted to say The Final Cut was a flop precisely because it was so relentlessly bleak. It's not even sad so much as hopeless, like The Wall with all the angry and optimistic parts distilled away. Two Suns in the Sunset is so desolate that it's tough to follow with any other music at all. The mood where that's relatable is way out past sad, which does it no favors selling copies or landing on playlists I agree that it's not really a generational thing, though. Timbuk3 landed one big hit (The Future's So Bright), and it was a sarcastic song about nuclear war that landed unironic play on graduation playlists. Their other, overtly depressing stuff got no traction at all. Rap, punk, and most any other genre has similarly hopeless, unromantic sad songs - they're just not approachable enough to top charts or endure in people's memories.

jerf 8y ago

Yeah, there's definitely a difference between "I'm sad because my baby ran around town" (say, Runaround Sue [1]) and "I'm sad because my romantic relationship broke down and that's just an example of the fundamental existential horror of being a living human that none can ever escape from and nothing will ever improve because we're fundamentally and irrevocably trapped" (The Wall). [1]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4NQLmUOgT5M https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4NQLmUOgT5M

Bartweiss 8y ago

I think that sort of sad is still around, although I agree that Floyd was a rather special case of a popular chart-topping band putting it out. There's definitely a difference between broken heart sad and what I'd maybe call depression sad or ennui sad.