the nuance
What Kind of Music Offers the Most Psychological Benefits?
Research finds that certain songs can bolster optimism, self-esteem, self-continuity, and social connectedness.
One of my favorite holiday songs is “Christmas Time Is Here,” the instrumental version, from the Vince Guaraldi Trio’s soundtrack to A Charlie Brown Christmas. It’s like all my holiday memories have been boiled down and poured into one piece of music. I hear it and become that guy from Seinfeld who gets a thousand-yard-stare whenever he listens to “Desperado.”
There’s an enthusiasm nowadays to slap “positive” and “negative” labels on all our feelings. (Happiness is good, sadness is bad, etc.) But our relationship to music often defies these clumsy categorizations. I’ve written before about the “pleasurable sadness” music can produce, and how sad songs can help people deal with difficult experiences. This research is part of a larger body of evidence linking nostalgic music to an array of psychological benefits.
Nostalgia is a complex emotional experience — one of those feelings that doesn’t fit into a tidy box. Most of the dictionary definitions I found online didn’t quite hit the mark, but one from the New Oxford Dictionary came close. It defines nostalgia as “a…
