the joys of self pity

As per usual, I have been thinking very hard this morning (when your job fosters escapist feelings, what else is there to do?) and the topic that wouldn't leave my well-developed mind was this: why do so many people love sad songs? What is the attraction of depressing music? I am no exception to this. I love a funereal rock ballad just as much as the next guy, but I want to know the reason for this. Breakup songs, she-cheated-on-me-and-now-I-hate-her songs, and other similarly themed ditties often find their way into my 'best-of' lists. I realized that it comes down to humankind's natural tendency toward self-pity. Most of us are good at feeling sorry for ourselves, especially in the romance department when things go sour. When I broke up with one of my girlfriends five years ago, I would lie in my darkened bedroom and listen to "Wild Horses" (the Stones) and "Black" (Pearl Jam) over and over again (piece of advice: the version of "Black" from Live on Two Legs is even more gut-wrenching than the original on Ten, especially Mike McCready's song ending solo, so if you really want some assistance climbing into the emotional abyss, this is the song for you). I knew as I repeated this destructive behaviour that I was not making things any better for myself, but I just couldn't stop. The funny thing is, I know that I am not alone in this. This is not an isolated case. There are thousands and thousands of people who are exactly like me and in a way, we don't really want to stop. We feeling sorry for ourselves for some stupid reason. I think that I am beginning to grow out of this now (it could help that I am engaged), but I STILL enjoy those depressing tales of lost love. I have no solutions to this issue, but it makes me laugh to write about it and so I did. As Elton John so eloquently put it: "Sad songs say so much..."