Are we Wikki’s depressed?

When you take a random listing tour on the wikki‘s uploads, I’m sure you noticed that more than 90% of the songs are in a minor key.
Are we Wikki’s that depressed? is it the time of the year or maybe a sign of the times ?
Do we have fun in uploading a sad song?
Are songs in a major key not cool enough or are happy songs for the ignorant songwriter who doesn’t know what is going on in this world?

These questions just crossed my mind.

This is a very good question! Personally I have written nearly 1000 songs in my life. So I can tell the the experience, that it is very easy to write a sad lovesong like "I woke up in the morning alone in my bed" and it is even much more easier to write a black-colored hit like "Why do you kill friendly people?".

It is very difficult to write a happy song if you don't discipline yourself. A good approach is to avoid the simple minor chords and use some minor-7th instead and try to switch between major and minor-mood in the same song.

I also delete bad or sad song-messages in old songs and replace it with positive lyrics. "Lord, you can change my life if I try" or "I will love you forever even if you are gone, my darling-young-one"
:)

Interesting idea there, John :)

I have thought about this a little - as one of those self-taught musicians who have very little knowledge of chords & harmony, I would not have been able to recognize we have that many minor-jams on the loops.
On the other hand, if you'd ask me if there was a significant majority of depressed songs on wikiloops, I would definetly say no - that is not my impression at all, so maybe judging the mood by harmony is not that precise?

I would agree that there are few "happy happy happy" tunes on wikiloops. There are a lot of funny, ironic, powerfull, political, sad, lonely, vulnerable, aggressive and lovely tunes on here.
Thats closer to my personal experience than the "happy happy"-overdose present in some other musical formats, I wouldn't like to think that is a sign of depression ;)

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Never understood the attraction to blues myself.

Found this study on the object: not only wikiloops ,seems we’re a part of a global trend in music.http://www.fu-berlin.de/presse/informationen/fup/2012/fup_12_147/index.html

thanks for the interesting read! I'd agree on the scientists explanation for the phenomenon, too.

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Interesting observation. Musicians/artists tend to be more introspective, in my opinion. I guess that's why god made pop-music producers!

Yes interesting subject. As for me as an all around player of many instruments I tend to always play blues even though the songs seem sad I personally get a different feeling from them, they make me feel good. I've never written a song I just play by feeling.

To me. minor does not mean sad.
Sad does not mean depressive.
Minor scales seem to me more open, giving more freedom to the improvisor, at least easier to improvise, to create.
Rarely there is a song with only minor chords. A-minor brings E-major as its dominant! Minor and major are almost always mixed - so is life mixed out of many emotional colours.

A sad song can be and is often so beautiful, touching the heart, with tears of joy...

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Edited by Lutz on January 15 2015 22:50

YES ! I agree with Lutz :)

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Edited by Shi on January 16 2015 11:28

A minor key is not the same as a minor chord and a major chord is not the same as a major key.
Surely in music we can use major and minor chords in both minor and major keys, but don’t make the mistake to confuse chords with a key a music piece is written in.
And for sure” the key “strikes different strings of the heart.
Scales are a different matter on their own.
Though I’ve been teaching music, and especially on this matter for most of my life, it’s hard for me to explain this in English ‘cause it’s rather technical and I don’t feel like it, to look up every technical term on the Bing translator.
Everyone knows Wikipedia where you can find English information on the subject.
But let it be clear: In western music every piece is in a major OR a minor key, except in modern atonal classical music, and that’s why this kind of music is not appreciated by everyone, and only in Chinese music they mix intervals from minor and major keys together.
The fact that most people prefer minor key music is very subjective and depends mostly on people’s mind, and since musicians are for the most part romantic people the choice is easily made.

I am very HAPPY when I listen to a good, heart touching song in a Minor key :D

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Edited by Lutz on January 17 2015 21:22

I like this question and the responses on this thread.I'm always drawn to the minor key backing tracks, not from sadness or depression, but for the emotion they bring out of my harmonicas.

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+1

I love minor, but I'm not depressed at all. I just connect to the resonance of minor keys very good. When I listen to the intro of J.S Bach's Johannes Passion, I can't keep the tears in. But not because I'm sad, just because of the beauty of it.
I guess we live in an era where it's completely accepted for music to be very expressive.
There is ofcourse a lot of 'Weltschmerz', so it's probably good for many of us to have minor music to go with that :)

To be honest, I do prefer music in a minor key too,

But I find it a bit contra dictionary that everyone seems to be so happy, and at the same time we like music in a minor key.
We live in a feelgood society where perfectness and happiness are the standards, in the social media we boost about a new haircut and we get 812 likes, and yes, even wiki joins the party, no bad word about: it is stimulating when you get a good review. I can understand that for an effort we make, but a haircut….? or a selfie or……….
What I don’t understand is; why do we like music in a minor key (and it does touch the sad part of our hart, but not often that easy to detect) when we are so happy and we have hundreds of friends who like everything we do?
Is it the society where everything is based on status, you can only be cute, smart and beautiful, and if you are not………..but deep down inside we struggle with a lot of doubts and questions.

Emotions and beauty are not the exclusivity reserved for the minor key’s, there can be as much emotions and beauty in music in a major key, it all depends on the persons state of mind.

Rule number one has to be....there are no rules.... Or at the very least ...rules are for the obedience of fools and the guidance of wise men.

Wonderful thread & lots of great answers !!

Unfortunately, coming from the ''badly self taught'' school of music ( as in : let's make some noise & blow some steam off, punk-ish approach.. ) i have no clue about where are most notes on my bass let alone chords, major, minor, scales, modes….. hence am enrolling to have classes next month or so. Ignorance IS NOT bliss…

However, i do recognise joy, sadness, etc… although i crave specially for beauty & that's the only god at whose altar i pray : not ''the beauty'' of magazine covers, appearances & shallowness but the beauty of love & tenderness, generosity, warmth, solidarity, etc… despite I'm still VERY rough around the edges on these.

So.. as some of you might've noticed from the templates & mixes that attract me to join in, as long as it's got the ''beauty'' suffix in there somewhere, regardless of genre, BPM or other - as long as it moves me, you can count me in ! ;)

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Edited by nuno1959 on February 11 2015 16:27

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Major or minor I like both...I don`t prefer some of them...it is just
the feel keeps in...

Now THEREs a slice of wisdom !!!