MySpace Archive - Musical Reflections via Tescos

Listening to my generic MP3 player on the way to Tescos today I reflected on how depressing the majority of my music collection seems to be. But I don’t think it’s just my taste in music, I think the majority of songs are quite sad. Perhaps its easier to sing about heartache and such than happy things. I’m not saying that there aren’t any happy songs, of course they are, but I think they are in the miniority. Then of course there are songs that are a bit more ambiguious, and the ones that are just about sex (there’s quite a few of those).

Let’s do a quick test, open media player and let it select 10 songs at random, we’ll see what we get. Of course this will be biased by my music collection, but its pretty big and varied, and you can always do it yourselves.

1) Coldplay - Square One
Well its coldplay for a start and it contains the lyrics
’Is there anybody out there who is lost and hurt and lonely too But they’re bleeding all your colours into one And if you come undone as if you’d been run through Some catapult it fired you You wonder if your chance will ever come And if you’re stuck in square one’
Pretty depressing me thinks

2) Hell is for Heroes - Out of Sight
Starts with a man shouting the lyrics ’once more I get burned’, enough said

3) Lostprophets - Kobrakai
Lots of shouting about someone who has stabbed them in the back and thinks everything revolves around them, not a happy song.

4) Richard Cheese - Rock the casbah
First happy sounding song, about well... rocking the casbah, the shareef don’t like it though

5) Roy Orbison - Crying
It’s all in the title

6) Counting Crows - Rain King
Doesn’t necessarily sound depressing at the start, but this voice of this singer, as much as I like it, in my opinion manages to makes just about any song sound sad, then you here the lyrics
’I think of dyingLay me down in a field of flame and heather’

7) Editors - Bullets
Another man with a depressing sounding voice
’You don’t need this disease, Not right now’

8) Faithless - Muhammad Ali
More happy than sad, but its not exactly upbeat

9) Incubus - I Miss You
Depends on your perspective for this one, but especially sad for me

10) Lasgo - Alone
A dance song, pretty upbeat but still it’s about a girl leaving some man.

So what’s our total?
8 out of 10 songs from my collection were depressing, I think thats pretty conclusive evidence!