Two Songs From Taylor Swift's 'Midnights' Are Perfect 'Sad Girl Autumn' Listening

Have you ever gotten home from a bad day and immediately ran to your room to put on your favorite sad songs playlist just so you could have a good cry? Or maybe you thought you were doing fine, but then literally anything by Adele starts to play and all of a sudden you’re sobbing in the middle of the street? (It happens to the best of us, TBH.)

There’s nothing like putting on a sad song when you’re all up in your feels. Music can help you regulate your emotions, work through problems, attain closure, and even ease pain. In fact, research shows that mood regulation is the most common use of music outside of rituals (think: weddings), says Andrew Rossetti, PhD, a board-certified music therapist and supervisor of the music therapy program in radiation oncology at The Louis Armstrong Center for Music and Medicine at Mount Sinai Beth Israel.

The power of music is undeniable. Listening to music or performing music has an effect on the entire body—it literally moves you (and that’s not merely a feeling, it’s science).

Meet the Experts:
Andrew Rossetti, PhD, is a board-certified music therapist and supervisor of the music therapy program in radiation oncology at The Louis Armstrong Center for Music and Medicine at Mount Sinai Beth Israel.

Bethany Cook, PsyD, MT-BC, is a board-certified music therapist, licensed clinical psychologist, and adjunct professor at the Illinois School of Professional Psychology.

"Music is something that affects the human organism in a systems way, which means that pretty much the entire organism is affected, either directly or indirectly, by listening to music or by performing music," explains Rossetti. "Our emotional brain is activated, our limbic system [the part of the brain involved in behavioral and emotional responses] is activated, motion is activated along with cognitive and associative processes."

Because the entire brain is lit up while listening to music, you’re able to tap into feelings and memories that you wouldn’t be able to while reading or seeing a picture, adds Bethany Cook, PsyD, MT-BC, a board-certified music therapist, licensed clinical psychologist, and adjunct professor at the Illinois School of Professional Psychology. “Music just offers so much more accessibility to the full spectrum of feelings,” she says.

Looking for the perfect soundtrack to your next crying sesh? Or maybe you’re in search of new tunes to add to your own sad songs playlist. Below you’ll find the ultimate playlist created by the WH team featuring tear-jerking songs for whether you’re feeling heartbroken or simply melancholic.

Best Sad Songs For Heartbreak

1. “Lay Me Down” By Sam Smith

2. “Great American Novel” By Max Jury

3. “Would've, Could've, Should've” By Taylor Swift

4. “Don’t Watch Me Cry” By Jorja Smith

5. “Male Fantasy” By Billie Eilish

6. “Glimpse of Us” By Joji

7. “Risk” By FKJ & Bas

8. “Wake Up Alone” By Amy Winehouse

9. “Sandcastles” By Beyoncé

10. “enough for you” By Olivia Rodrigo

11. “Be My Mistake” By The 1975

12. “Memories” By Conan Gray

13. “Aubrey” By Bread

14. “I Should Have Known” By Foo Fighters

15. “Love Overgrown” By Raveena

16. “Evergreen” By Omar Apollo

17. “Someone New” By BANKS

18. “Coffee Stained Smile” By Delaney Bailey

19. “Homesick” By Lexi Jade

20. “Yebba’s Heartbreak” By Drake & Yebba

21. “Consequences” By Camila Cabello

Best Sad Songs For Grieving A Relationship

1. “Labyrinth” By Taylor Swift

2. “The A Team” By Ed Sheeran

3. “Closer” By JP Cooper

4. “Gravity” By Sara Bareilles

5. “When You Love Someone” By James TW

6. “The Girl” By City and Colour

7. “Rainbow” By Kacey Musgraves

8. “Say Something” By A Great Big World & Christina Aguilera

9. “My Little Love” By Adele

10. “marjorie” By Taylor Swift

11. “Your Saddest Great Achievement” By Lucy Eaton

12. “Monsoon” By Amber Mark & Mia Mark

13. “I Will Smile When I Think of You” By J.E. Sunde

14. “Vincent” By Don McLean

15. “Show Me How” By Men I Trust

16. “I’m Not In Love” By Kelsey Lu

17. “Nobody But You” By Wonder & Jorja Smith

18. “Thank you song” By FKA Twigs

19. “Orbit” By NAO

20. “Better Off” By Jeremy Zucker ft. Chelsea Cutler

21. “Ruin” By Shawn Mendes

Best Sad Songs About Love

1. “You & I (Nobody in the World)” By John Legend

2. “Move Together” By James Bay

3. “Stay” By Rihanna & Mikky Ekko

4. “Can’t Help Falling in Love” By Elvis Presley

5. “Beneath Your Beautiful” By Labrinth ft. Emeli Sandé

6. “Say It Again (Acoustic)” By Frances

7. “I Was Made for Loving You” By Tori Kelly & Ed Sheeran

8. “Sweet Love of Mine (Acoustic)” By Joy Williams

9. “Creatures (Acoustic)” By Shannon Saunders

10. “If the World Was Ending” JP Saxe ft. Julia Michaels

11. “Work Song” By Hozier

12. “Love on the Moon” By Catie Turner

13. “Even This Shall Pass Away” By The Sylvers

14. “Fool for You” By Snoh Aalegra

15. “Exist for Love” By AURORA

16. “New Balance” By Jhené Aiko

17. “Paper Hearts” By Tori Kelly

18. “Start Of Time” By Gabrielle Aplin

19. “Goodnight” By Lennon Stella

20. “Honestly” By Pink Sweat$

21. “Helium” By Sia

Best Sad Songs To Cry To

1. “I’m Tired” By Labyrinth

2. “Matilda” By Harry Styles

3. “Strange” By Celeste

4. “Godspeed” By Frank Ocean

5. “Stoned At The Nail Salon” By Lorde

6. “Breathe Me” By Sia

7. “Where’s My Love” By Syml

8. “Favorite Crime” By Olivia Rodrigo

9. “Au Revoir” By One Republic

10. “Ghost-in” By Ariana Grande

Best Sad Songs For Processing Change

1. “Skinny Love” By Bon Iver

2. “Let It All Go” By Birdy & RHODES

3. “To Build A Home” By The Cinematic Orchestra & Patrick Watson

4. “go” By Cat Burns

5. “Scott Street” By Phoebe Bridgers

6. “Recovery” By LP

7. “Don’t Know How to Keep Loving You” By Julia Jacklin

8. “Grass Stains” By Laura Elliott

9. “Comedown” By Joesef

10. “Grow As We Go” By Ben Platt

11. “Never Dreamed You’d Leave in Summer” By Stevie Wonder

12. “God Must Be Doing Cocaine” By Charlotte Lawrence

13. “Bad Life” By Omar Apollo ft. Kali Uchis

14. “20 Something” By SZA

15. “Wildfire” By Cautious Clay

Best Sad Songs For When You’re Feeling Melancholic

1. “Happy” By MARINA

2. “Heal” By Tom Odell

3. “fragile” By Garrett Nash ft. WRENN

4. “hope is a dangerous thing for a woman like me to have” By Lana Del Rey

5. “Older Than I Am” By Lennon Stella

6. “Blush” By Alice Wolf

7. “Talking to the Moon” By Bruno Mars

8. “I Just Wasn’t Made for These Times” By The Beach Boys

9. “Tommy’s Party” By Peach Pit

10. “This Woman’s Work” By Kate Bush

11. “Fool’s Gold” By Briston Maroney

12. “Sullen Girl” By Fiona Apple

13. “Mind Over Matter” By Sea Stars

14. “Streetcar” By Daniel Caesar

How does music comfort you when you’re feeling low?

Have you ever cried while listening to a sad song and then felt a sweet cathartic release afterwards? If you answered yes, your body might have synchronized with the music you were listening to, resulting in released tension and and prolactin (the hormone responsible for curving and controlling grief), producing a relaxation response. (Cool, right?)

And when you’re feeling down and out, a sad song might be the one thing you need to stay afloat. “[Sad songs] keep people just in that [feeling] blue phase. It allows them to feel enough support, that they don't drop all the way to depression,” explains Cook. “It could be somebody self-soothing or knowing what their body needs. They need to feel seen or validated.”

In music therapy, therapists use music for entrainment (the alignment of a person’s biological rhythm with the external rhythms in their environment) to change a patient’s mood and help them safely release emotional tension.

"We actually entrain with the state that the patient is in, so that means playing something that’s in the same tempo and at the same intensity as we see the patient’s respiratory rate and heart rate to be, which is observable through a medical monitor. And then [we] gradually slow that down, making the music less intense and activating," explains Rossetti. "In that process, you produce a relaxation response quite easily."

While it might sound counterintuitive, if you’re ever feeling down, listening to sad songs can actually boost your mood, or at the very least, stabilize it.

So next time you’re in your (emotional) bag, you might want to crank on a playlist of tear-jerkers and "Cry Your Heart Out." You’ll feel much better. (Promise!)

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