Stop listening to sad music this fall — listen to house music instead

It’s that time of the year: the temperature has dropped 30 degrees to now an unpredictable back-and-forth of somewhere between 50 and 60, the sun goes down by the time it’s 6 p.m. (and I haven’t even had dinner yet) and everything just feels so … dark. 

Society likes to call this “seasonal depression.” With midterms occurring back-to-back and the school days getting busier by the minute, it just seems as if things are getting more complex. Some even choose to celebrate this new season with the slew of Spotify playlists that embrace titles like “sad girl fall.” People seem to play slower, moodier, and more broody music around this time of the year as some form of “coping mechanism.” I beg to differ. 

I believe that sad music only ends up making us sadder, and that it does nothing but exacerbate this weird negative feeling that we get with the shorter daylights and growing workloads. If I am feeling somewhat negative, listening to moody music always makes me overthink and worsens any negative thoughts that I have in my mind. Coupled with the fact that Duke University is an academically rigorous school and the coursework never stops, I just simply cannot balance out these thoughts with all the workload that I have and manage to be productive in a healthy way. Research backs this up; listening to mood-influencing music affects our Default Mode Network, brain regions that are active when the brain is at rest and not focused on the external environment — think of this as your brain being in “background mode”, and sad music can lead to more introspection. 

By no means am I discrediting seasonal depression. It’s very much a real thing. Not only that, research as published in Frontiers has shown that for some people, sad music can heighten sadness but also provide aesthetic enjoyment. 

However, I stand by my point that surrounding yourself with a dark and sad natural environment with even darker, sadder music may not be the solution to improving our mindsets. 

To raise a point, I ask that any Duke student feeling the negative vibes of seasonal depression play some EDM instead. Whether techno or house is your vibe, go for something energetic that has at least 120 beats per minute. I promise you that the lack of lyrics will keep you focused and that the (typically spoken) foreign language in the music will not distract you. As I type this very opinionated essay, I’m blasting some house in my headphones, and my fingers are flying across the keyboard. I’m not distracted by any lyrics, there’s a fast tempo that’s accelerating my typing, and I’m feeling focused without conflict of emotions. 

Sometimes, all you need is a good pick-me-up. Forget about “you are what you eat” — the new saying should be “you are what you listen to.” 

Kate Yeonjae-Jeong is a Trinity first-year. Her pieces typically run on alternating Tuesdays.