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Bad music and break ups

Heart of glassThe Pulse got this report from Sarah, who lives in London. spills the beans on why being sad at the end of a relationship can lead you to listening to soppy songs.

There are a number of reasons why a break up can leave you feeling utterly shattered.

Every banal routine of your life becomes a trigger for floods of tears; everything reminds you of some great fabulous time when you were in love and happy.

However there is something worse than the inability to get out of bed. This thing is the ultimate kicking when you are already well and truly down: really cheesy pop songs have meaning.

This unfair affliction took me by surprise and started off innocently enough. The new Kanye West track seemed to be written entirely for the present situation I found myself in. In the midst of my break up, it appeared to be an anthem. This was harmless enough.

Apart from Kanye’s randomly inflated ego, he’s a pretty cool guy. And it’s a good song. But then it became something far more sinister. Atomic Kitten’s ‘Whole Again’ suddenly became a profound assessment of my life; Roxette’s (God, I know) ‘It must have been love’ was a searing interpretation of my deepest heartache and any number of Coldplay’s lyrics appeared so fitting I almost convinced myself that Chris Martin and I had been chatting.

Confessions over the phone

Have you got some embarrassing songs that have helped you through a breakup? Let us know at The Pulse ... email thepulse@ccc.govt.nz

How can this be? Is it not unfair enough to suffer the pain of a broken heart than to have this agony multiplied by the fact I now have excruciating taste in music? Something had to be done. I trolled through Youtube in search of some classic songs that would speak to me but would do so without a synthesiser or drum machine.

I found myself singing along to mid 80s Paul McCartney. This was not a good sign. I managed to pry myself away from the Bonnie Tyler epic ‘Total Eclipse Of The Heart’ to phone a friend. Filled with guilt and trepidation about what I was experiencing, I broke down and confessed.

‘Bad music seems so true. It’s as though it’s speaking to me.’

Expecting to hear the loud sound of the dial tone my friend told me she understood and had been exactly the same.

Everyone has told me the pain will decrease in time. I can only hope the same thing applies with the music. That one day, in the not too distant future, I’ll have an appropriate response if I heard All Saints ‘Never Ever' on the radio. I’d turn it off.

September 2009