Besides the usual entertainment value, people listen to music when they are feeling depressed or sad, or if they have gone through a rough time. Turning the volume up all the way helps block out the various sounds of the world around you and enables you to forget reality, for a little while at least.
For someone whose personality is based around this trope, see Headphones Equal Isolation.
This is, of course, Truth in Television, but note that this trope is about characters using music to cope In-Universe. For songs that are themselves about sorrow and solace, see Grief Song (although there is often overlap).
Compare Self-Soothing Song.
Examples:
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Anime and Manga
- In the anime Elfen Lied, during her horrible childhood, a lonely Lucy meets Kohta and spends the summer with him. One of the most notable things they did was sitting out in the rain together while listening to the song "Lilium" coming from Kohta's music box. For the first time in her life, Lucy closes her eyes and is able to forget everything terrible that's happened to her thus far, for a moment. At various points during the series she hums the song, reveling in the wonderful memories she shared with Kohta. In her words, she "was able to survive that long because she clung to the hope that she would be able to meet Kohta again someday and apologize".
- Played with in Kaguya-sama: Love Is War where Hayasaka sings a song about unrequited love to deal with the pain of having been previously being rejected by Shirogane while at a mixer in a karaoke bar. Except she doesn't actually have any romantic feelings for him (having only asked him out in the first place as part of a bet with Kaguya) and is instead trying to make Shirogane so uncomfortable that he'll head home instead of potentially have another girl flirt with him (also at Kaguya's behest).
- In the earlier episodes of Neon Genesis Evangelion, Shinji regularly listened to Track 25 for "You Are the Only One" and Track 26 for "Blue Legend" on his SDAT player in an attempt to shut out the world. In episode 25 when the batteries finally go dead, he ignores it, which is a sign of his increased apathy.
- In Puella Magi Madoka Magica, while Kyousuke is in hospital with an injured hand, Sayaka tries to cheer him up by getting him to listen to classical music. While this seems to help at first, it eventually has the opposite effect, because it reminds him that he can't play the violin any more.
- The Witch Oktavia von Seckendorff eternally listens to her Familiars playing music, and flies into a rage if anyone interrupts them. Oktavia is the Witch that Sayaka turns into after crossing the Despair Event Horizon, with Familiars that resemble Kyousuke.
Fan Fiction
- In Racer and the Geek, Sunny sings a mix of Bronezhilet
and Prishel Prikaz when remembering his past.
- In Songs Uncle Sings, also by Kalash93, the uncle sings such songs on the balalaika. At the story's climax, he and his nephew sing the first verse of Sineva.
Films — Animated
- In Lilo & Stitch, Lilo slumps on the floor and listens to "Heartbreak Hotel" after being rejected by the other girls.
- "Soon" is sung by Thumbelina to comfort herself because she's lonely. Her mother later sings it to comfort herself over her missing daughter.
- "Baby Mine" from Dumbo is sung by Mrs. Jumbo to comfort herself and her baby because they've been separated due to the former going Mama Bear to protect her baby.
Films — Live-Action
- Odd Squad: The Movie has "The Saddest Song in the World of All Time"... which subverts and inverts this trope.
Danny T: Girl, music has the power to life you up when you're feelin' low. But not this music. This music is a major downer.
- In Star Trek: First Contact, after being denied permission to take part in the defense of Earth, Picard stays in his ready room with Hector Berlioz's Les Troyens turned up so loud that objects on his desk vibrate.
- The 1989 Tony Danza vehicle She's Out of Control had the teen protagonist lock herself in her room playing her music at full volume after a fight with her father and a breakup with her boyfriend. When one of her friends comes looking for her, she is directed "up the stairs, follow the sad music".
- Davy Jones' music box, a memento of his long-lost love, is like this in Pirates of the Caribbean. The melody can lull him into sleep or drive him to tears. The aforementioned long-lost love also has one, and it seems to have the same function for her.
Literature
- Edward in Twilight listens to music in his car to calm down after meeting Bella and almost killing her.
- In the Lonely Werewolf Girl books, Kalix likes to listen to The Runaways loudly when she is depressed or angsty (which is to say, often). Daniel does much the same with his Goth/Death Metal music whenever he feels angry or frustrated with Moonglow (again, often).
- In Ancillary Justice, the AI Hive Mind One Esk has a habit of singing and collecting songs. Later on after being reduced to a single body, One Esk often hums a particular song from her past in times of stress. Someone eventually sees through her disguise by hearing a song they recognize.
- Subverted in Animorphs; in a very gloomy mood, Marco resorts to listening to Bob Marley in a desperate attempt to distract himself from the fact that his mother is actually alive but is currently serving as the host body to Visser One. It doesn't work, in part because he keeps subconsciously rewriting the lyrics to fit his current state of mind.
- During the later chapters of 2001: A Space Odyssey, David Bowman is the last surviving member of the Discovery following HAL-9000's psychotic breakdown, forced to continue his mission entirely alone. In a desperate attempt to assuage his loneliness, he begins working his way through the ship's audio library, often playing it at almost painful volumes in order to dispel the silence; after a long experimental phase, he finally realizes he can't stand recordings of the human voice anymore, instead finding solace in purely instrumental music by Bach and Mozart.
Live-Action TV
- Angel
- Not only does the titular vampire listen to sad music when he's depressed, but his song of choice is Barry Manilow's "Mandy".
- A throwaway line in the episode "Sanctuary" revealed that Angel tried to turn Faith on to the "healing power of the Manilow", and that while Manilow seriously wasn't Faith's thing, she had to admit she felt better sometimes after listening to "Weekend in New England"
- Not only does the titular vampire listen to sad music when he's depressed, but his song of choice is Barry Manilow's "Mandy"
- Buffy the Vampire Slayer
- In "Prophecy Girl", Xander plans to do this when Buffy rejects him. "I'm just gonna go home, lie down, and listen to country music. The music of pain!" True to his word, he's listening to "I Fall to Pieces", by Patsy Cline when Willow attempts to call him. He takes his phone off the hook.
- In "Entropy" after Xander's wedding to Anya goes pear-shaped, he gets drunk listening to "Sao Paulo Rain" by Tom McRae.
- In "Forever", Giles listens to "Tales of Great Ulysses" after Joyce's death, which he played for Joyce during the events of "Band Candy".
- "Lie to Me" reveals that when her friend Ford moved away Buffy would spend hours locked in her room listening to the song "I Touch Myself". She hastens to add that she had no idea what it meant at the time.
- The Crown (2016)
- In "Smoke and Mirrors", the Duke of Windsor watches the televised royal coronation, and the episode ends with him playing the bagpipes while a Single Tear runs down his face as he ponders what he gave up.
- In "Beryl" after her intended marriage to Billy Williams goes pear-shaped, Princess Margaret gets drunk and trashes her room while listening to Ella Fitzgerald's "Angel Eyes". Inverted later when she joyfully listens to "I Only Have Eyes for You" by The Flamingos after having fallen for Antony Armstrong-Jones.
- In Glee, lovesick school counselor Emma sings/cries along to Eric Carmen's "All By Myself" while sitting in her car in the rain.
- The Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episode "It's Only A Paper Moon" has Nog listening to "I'll Be Seeing You" loudly and repeatedly as he tries to get over his PTSD.
- Star Trek: Voyager.
- Averted in "Parturition". Harry Kim has taken up the clarinet. His best friend Tom Paris insists he play something sad, as he's fallen in love with Kes who's already spoken for. Harry keeps playing cheerful music instead.
- Played straight at the end of "Someone To Watch Over Me", when the Doctor plays the title song on a holodeck piano after Seven of Nine shoves him permanently into the Friend Zone.
Music
- Tears for Fears: "Famous Last Words":
Hand in hand we'll do and die
Listening to the band that made us cry - Eric Carmen: "All By Myself", as featured in aforementioned works.
- Zucchero: The song "Hey Man!" tells about Zucchero trying to cope with a heartbreak, and as he walks in the streets he sees a man who is also emotionally hurt by a heartbreak, so he approaches him and proposes him to sing together to mutually alleviate their grief. The song was composed around the time Zucchero divorced his wife in real life, so it doubles as a Grief Song.
Religion and Mythology
- The Bible:
- In the Books of Samuel, King Saul falls into despair when the spirit of God leaves him. David, who unbeknownst to Saul has become God's new anointed king, is able to comfort him with his music.
- Many entries in the Book of Psalms, often written by David.
- In the Books of Kings, Elisha is at one point so angry that he can't prophesy until he has a musician brought in to help him calm down.
Visual Novels
- The title character of Melody plays these whenever she’s feeling bad, particularly about losing her mother.
