Just Get Over It

This week saw Adele’s squillion selling breakthrough album ‘21’ return to the number one spot on the anniversary of its release subsequently raising three important questions. Firstly who the hell wants this record, who doesn’t already own it and thirdly, just what is the appeal of this musical tragedian’s maudlin laments?  Sadness is, of course, an inevitable part of life and therefore an inevitable part of pop music but why choose to listen to something that recalls (or worse provokes) feelings of misery? After a rough day or a bad breakup surely the best thing to do would be to stick on Bob Marley’s ‘Three Little Birds’ and JUST GET OVER IT.

I am sure there are all kinds of advanced scientific justifications for why people actually listen to The Verve but on a more basic level the internet is awash with pseudo psychiatric explanations. The general consensus seems to be simply that misery loves company. Putting on a gloomy record provides not only emotional release but also assurance that you are not alone; that your heroes have felt the same way and managed to create something beautiful (or at least marketable) out of their melancholy.

It’s a theory which certainly seems reasonable but the reality is some people just like to wallow. We Brits are notoriously a nation of moaners and therefore it seems feasible that we would be attracted to the kind of masochistic pleasure that can be derived from listening to The Smiths self-pitying anthem ‘Please, Please, Please Let Me Get What I Want’ in the dark crying about the injustice of everything. There must be a place for this, indeed some of the most beautiful songs ever written are fundamentally sad (see Bright Eyes, Jeff Buckley, Elliott Smith, Joy Division) but like Red Bull or class A drugs they must be enjoyed in moderation or you will wake up one day with heart palpitations and no friends. Consequently it’s important to remember that while it may be nice to feel like someone understands you at your lowest you don’t want that someone to be a member of The Fray. That really would be depressing.

By Rebecca Atkinson