Nostalgia and Mixed Emotions in Response to Music

Abstract

One of the most common reasons that people report for listening to sad music is to enable them to remember the past. Nostalgia is often described as being a `bittersweet' experience that involves mixed emotions. In this chapter, Garrido investigates the evidence around the issue of whether or not listening to sad music may at times evoke mixed emotions such as nostalgia. Studies involving listening experiments designed to evoke nostalgia in participants are discussed, along with the psychological value of musically-evoked nostalgia.