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Doesn't this presume that "sad music" is - in fact - sad?

There's plenty of music I will sit and listen to that my daughter asks me to turn off because it makes her sad, but I find very uplifting. Examples:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lUpvEgJEn94

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tIcR7Xkysds

There are plenty of other examples as well. All the studies reveal to me is that we're all wired a little different. Shocker.

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We're culturally conditioned to associate certain patterns to certain emotions.

Personally I find those two examples you posted as melancholic and solemn, which I love.

If you put those same tracks to an African tribe which has never heard (let's call it) European music, I doubt they'd feel sadness or melancholy. Maybe they wouldn't feel anything at all.

Yeah, I've noticed the same thing. "Sad" songs make me feel better. I'm not sure why.

I think music is a mirror that provides contrast.

If the music is more depressing than you are, you feel less depressed. But if the music is happier than you are, you appreciate that you're more unhappy, and that makes you feel worse.

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