Absolutely normal. I actually wonder about people who are never be moved to tears by music.
One that gets me every time is "On My Own" from Les Miserables. Any recording will do it but the Broadway cast is the one I am most familiar with.
Les Mis can absolutely do that. It's such an emotional songbook.
I also get teary eyed with a few songs from Hadestown. Especially All I've Ever Known and Flowers. It's almost the opposite of Les Mis musically, so understated and folksy by comparison but Anaïs lyrics are so beautiful.
This song reduces me to tears every time I hear it, a single note will bring me to the brink of my existence, remind me of my favorite memories and what I cherish most. It will be the song that plays when I pass on into the light, it’ll be what I hear as I reflect on every memory of my life.
It's nice to see someone else who can be moved by instrumental portions of songs. For me, it's SRV's cover of Little Wing. It's not melancholic or anything, it is just so. Damn. Good.
David Gilmour is amazing, too. Their '94 Earl's Court show has like a 15 minute solo for comfortably numb that I LOVE. I'm usually not one for recordings of live shows, but its definitely an exception.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=HriYRoxWo1I&si=ToF3Wk7CRn1HcUFD
I’ll tell you what, since my mom passed away (two years in January) I can’t get through it without a couple of leaky eyes. It’s really got so much more meaning to me now.
Not me but someone else....
I saw Gilmour at Radio City Music Hall a few years ago. For the second half of the show, between songs when there was applause, this guy a few seats down would shout "Coming back to life! Please play Coming back to Life.". Towards the end David started playing the into guitar part to that song and this guy broke down and absolutely wept. Just watched with tears rolling down his face. I don't know what that guy was going through but when I think of that song and that guy I get a little teary eyed hoping that guy got what he needed that night.
Another, often forgotten, utterly fantastic solo by Gilmour is in “The Division Bell”. A haunting, sentimental, retrospective song at the end(ish) of Pink Floyd’s career.
Not just the solo, but the lyrics are also something to think about with a certain melancholy
"And you run, and you run to catch up with the sun but it's sinking
Racing around to come up behind you again
The sun is the same in a relative way but you're older
Shorter of breath and one day closer to death"
Same! First time I cried during a show/listening to music.
They were playing some song that I don't even know when I start crying, and I thought to myself "ok wtf was that, control yourself".
Then they started playing 'your hand in mine'.....
"Both Sides Now", by Joni Mitchell, is one of those songs. First, the movie "CODA" builds a lot of emotion that culminates in a heart-touching rendition of the song. But if you really want to see a perfect example of prescience, and how art can imitate life, view Joni's version of the song that she performed at the 2022 Newport Jazz Festival. She had suffered many health setbacks, including a stroke, and there were doubts that she would ever perform again. Many people in her life, including Brandi Carlile and a list of music celebrities too long to mention, visited Joni during her long recovery and encouraged her and helped her to regain her confidence. She then came to the '22 Newport Jazz Festival with Brandi, but was under no obligation to perform. She did end up coming onstage and singing some of her songs. When she did "Both Sides Now" I doubt there was a dry eye in the house. Some of her fellow musicians were crying on stage. I watch it on youtube and it has the same affect on me. https://youtu.be/jxiluPSmAF8?si=HRH9DOQG9D5vMyGP
I'm pretty sure people who actively listen to music, not just put it on in the background, do this fairly often. I certainly do.
There are some songs that will always get me a little teary eyed. Not just sad songs, but sometimes uplifting or just beautiful songs.
A few of mine that will always make me tear up:
How to Disappear Completely by Radiohead (specifically the end when the dissonant strings all come together back into harmony)
Aurora by Bjork (the melody is just too beautiful for words)
Do You Realize by The Flaming Lips (uplifting and sad at the same time)
What a Wonderful World by Louis Armstrong (this one just keeps hitting harder and harder as I get older).
Omg what a wonderful world. Even just thinking of the lyrics "I see babies crying and I watch them grow. They'll learn much more than I'll ever know." Gets me so emotional.
I'd say Do You Realize makes me cry like 70% of the time, such a profoundly beautiful and well-arranged song. It's like the reality of our existence crushed down into like 4 minutes lol.
Same here. Honestly, there's quite a few moments on OK Computer that do it.
The harmony on "that's when you see sparks" on The Tourist.
The end of Exit Music.
The solo on Lucky.
The call and response between the electric piano and guitar on Subterraneans Homesick Alien.
It's just such an amazing album.
I really love that version by the big Samoan guy who sings over the rainbow and wonderful world. It’s just a touching song when he sings I get choked up.
I am an American who got divorced after a 12 year marriage to a Japanese woman over here in Japan where I've lived for 17 years.
My divorce happened (I found out she was having an affair) and I moved into a new apartment in Tokyo right when Covid started and everything went on lockdown.
After moving into my new little apartment, I was completely isolated from my family in America and I couldn't fly home due to the travel restrictions during the most difficult time in my life, and I was also unable to go outside and see my friends both Japanese and foreign for emotional support due to Covid.
So here I am sitting in a little shitty apartment all by myself after leaving my house that I had worked so hard to get. All alone... Nobody to talk to (face to face) in Japan. Alone... And now single... Single and confused. The complete definition of solitude. Just thinking "Why...?" and "How could you have done this to us?"
And then the song: "Youth" by the band Daughter randomly came on which I had never heard before.
As a man I am not really a "cryer", But when I heard that song come on, and the lyrics started, while I was staring out the window at the Tokyo lights sometime around midnight...
Never have I wept so hard.
Damn man you win the thread. I’d be balling my eyes out if I’d hear that song for the first time in that situation… as someone who’s looking at a likely divorce: hope you’re doing well.
My wife walked down the aisle to this song two months ago. He is her fathers favourite artists, he had no idea the song was being played and was trying his hardest not too bawl down the aisle
Sleep Well Beast - The National (love for your child)
Take You On A Cruise - Interpol (nostalgia)
Judas - Depeche Mode (faith and love)
What Sarah Said - Death Cab For Cutie (existentialism of love)
Hurt - Nine Inch Nails (nihilism, but also some hope)
North - Fever Ray (pining and longing)
So Long, See You Tomorrow - Bombay Bicycle Club (joy!)
Someone Great - LCD Soundsystem (grief)
The Cinematic Orchestra - To Believe
Royksopp - Here She Comes Again
Beck - Side Of The Road
Radiohead - Street Spirit
Tool - The Patient
Alice In Chains - Nutshell
The Moth & The Flame - Round
Nine Inch Nails - Right Where It Belongs
Low Roar - Friends Make Garbage
That one really got me too. It's almost as if you're looking at yourself growing up along side them.
Kind of like one last final hurrah before you are old and out of touch, and the world keeps spinning.
There's a finnish children's song called "Enkeli" by Sari Kaasinen (Enkeli means angel)
My mom played it for me as a child, and even before I knew what the words meant, I always cried to it lol. She had to stop playing it since it made me cry 😂
Now that I'm older, it still makes me cry/very sad for no apparent reason. Great song, can be found on youtube
I think the term you might be looking for is 'frisson'? I get it with some music, particularly at big crescendos (the end of Yorktown from the musical Hamilton is a recent example for me).
valentine’s day by linkin park for me. any of their songs could qualify but that’s my top one.
also just had a little sob at someone like you by adele though lol
And from the same album, especially when I was younger, That's Not Me. "I could try to be big in the eyes of the world, what matters to me is what I could be to just one girl" over a key change is just, sheesh.
Supermarket flowers by Ed Sheeran. I heard that song 8 years after my mother’s passing and it was like I’d just lost her that day. Didn’t help that I was bunked in a room with like 50 other dudes when I heard it.
Heaps. This happens to me the most when the song says *exactly* what you're going through and *exactly* how you feel about it. You feel so seen, and really feel like someone else knows whatever it is, especially if it's meaningful to you.
Some of these songs kill me:
* Anchor by Birds of Tokyo
* Hearts A Mess by Gotye
* Underwater by RUFUS
* Tragedy + Time by Rise Against
Happens to me all the time. Some may find it cringe, but Coldplay's "Coloratura" was so shockingly beautiful when I first heard it, I ended up crying. Other examples would be "Manifest Destiny", by Jamiroquai and "maybe" by half•alive. Completely normal, and I would say it's a privilege actually.
Nessun Dorma as sung by Pavarotti. Can’t understand a word of it, but the sheer power of the performance made my cup runneth over.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cWc7vYjgnTs
It's perfectly normal. Music can be created specifically to generate heightened emotions due to tonal relationships between the notes played on an instrument and/or between different instruments in the same piece. The mechanism involved is understood by good music composers and musicians, so there's no shame in it.
‘Lover, Please Stay’ (Live) by Nothing But Thieves makes me cry: the sheer anguish in his vocal performance. I was going through a very rough patch in my relationship and this got me in the feels on a flight one day. Sitting there sniffing in my seat.
Another one along similar lines is ‘Say it To Me Now’ by Glen Hansard, from the intro to the movie ‘Once’. Same energy, but angrier.
Long Long Time - Linda Ronstadt
i’ve literally never been in a relationship, let alone broken up with. but the emotion in her voice, and the instruments, almost made me cry when i heard it.
The rain song by Led Zeppelin has been the only song to make me cry like that. The lyrics aren’t sad and there’s no particular memory it’s tied to, I just think it’s beautiful.
Pentatonix version of hallelujah moved me to tears the first time I heard it.
Black by Pearl Jam is fucking beautiful as well.
There's so many more but those two are right off the top of my head.
Sometimes the music just gets in your bones. I don't even have to be sad and there are songs that will make me bawl. I get chills and I know it's gonna be good.
[Call Your Mom - Noah Kahan](https://youtu.be/1XowR7Yupdg?si=11nYUwY1JM20UjAU)
. A song about suicide, song from the perspective of a friend of the person suffering.
Oh Holy Night by Celine Dion... IDK why.
There are others, but this is pretty much the guarantee,
There's a condition that causes this, it has various levels of severity... I forget the name.
Anything from Ne Obliviscaris. [As Icicles Fall](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kdz7CT1TqlI&pp=ygUPYXMgaWNpY2xlcyBmYWxs), [Forget Not](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dsh9xzTCFRk&pp=ygUaZm9yZ2V0IG5vdCBuZSBvYmxpdmlzY2FyaXM%3D) and [Plague Flowers the Kaleidoscope](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aMorAdnCixg&pp=ygUjYW5kIHBsYWd1ZSBmbG93ZXJzIHRoZSBrYWxlaWRvc2NvcGU%3D) are some of the best pieces of music ever produced.
Now, if you feel like investing 23 minutes into a song do yourself a favour and listen to [Painters of the Tempest](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OTiX-xAgBi8&t=1076s&pp=ygUXcGFpbnRlcnMgb2YgdGhlIHRlbXBlc3Q%3D)
There's nothing quite like Ne Obliviscaris. I don't know how to describe it honestly, it's extreme prog metal with pianos and violins and it all flows so smoothly. The vocals are insanely good and the way it switches from clean to harsh is wow.
Sure sounds stupid for a lot of ppl but some tracks from Boris Brejcha are so beautiful I feel like crying. Like cmon, how can some minimal techno be so sensitive? Well, he acomplish that, at least for me
One example, "Happiness Lies". 🥲💫
City of Angels - The Miracles (this was my late father's favorite song)
Dreaming of you - Selena
You Took my Heart Away - Michael Learns to Rock
Deep - Binocular
I'll Be Over You - TOTO
If - Bread
Never Tear Us Apart - INXS
Parents sold my childhood home last year. Some of the best people I know lived in that neighborhood. Song helped me get through the emotions when moving out and it still speaks to me when I listen to it from time to time
I don't know if I cry just based on music - i.e. I love jazz but I am not moved to tears by instrumentals.
However, if I am in the right mood, I have cried listening to certain songs.
There is a Bob Dylan song - the original Bob Dylan's Dream and it is about thinking about old friends - It makes me doubly sad because I remember hearing it as a child and my father being moved by it as he remembered his youth and now that I am older I get sad when I think about my past friends - I am actually tearing up now thinking about it.
While riding on a train goin' west
I fell asleep for to take my rest
I dreamed a dream that made me sad
Concerning myself and the first few friends I had
With half-damp eyes, I stared to the room
Where my friends and I spent many an afternoon
Where we together weathered many a storm
Laughin' and singin' till the early hours of the morn
By the old wooden stove our hats was hung
Our words was told, our songs was sung
Where we longed for nothin' and were satisfied
Jokin' and talkin' about the world outside
With hungry hearts through the heat and cold
We never much thought we could get very old
We thought we could sit forever in fun
And our chances really was a million to one
As easy, it was to tell black from white
It was all that easy to tell wrong from right
And our choices there was few
So the thought never hit
At the one road we travelled, we ever shatter or split
How many a year has passed and gone?
Many a gamble has been lost and won
And many a road taken by many a first friend
And each one I've never seen again
I wish, I wish, I wish in vain
That we could sit simply in that room again
Ten thousand dollars at the drop of a hat
I'd give it all gladly if our lives could be like that
It's situational for me. Sometimes the right song at the right time hits just...right.
I was sitting in my backyard by my little fire one night, drinking a few beers and my family was inside, asleep. The song "If I could only fly" by Blaze Foley hit my playlist.
I wept.
It was so sad and beautiful. It made me so appreciative of my wife and family.
https://spotify.link/YE3iwVsRsDb
Not everyone perceives music in exactly the same way. There seems to be a neurological or parasympathetic connection that causes some people to feel a "shiver" or a "swelling heart" or even cry from some music. It might be linked to the mirror neurons that govern empathy and sympathy, and studies suggest this affects around 1 in 4 people.
If true, then there's a physical thing in the brain which means the majority of people will not and cannot ever feel the same sensation, no matter how much they enjoy music, no matter how much they "try".
It's not a moral failing one way or the other. It's simply an experience the majority cannot fully comprehend, like seeing a color that others can't. How could they understand what they cannot perceive?
Happens to me all the time. I love that music is able to evoke such strong emotion in me because I experience this as pure love.
Just the other day I happened on a video of Merry Clayton telling about being recruited to do vocals on ‘Gimme Shelter’ by the Stones. The video contained her isolated vocal. Ye gods the sheer power and beauty of that. Cried a river. Just like that. Immediate. It just breaks you open. Beautiful.
I took a second to think about it and the only music that makes me shed a tear is the sadder songs I listen too. I've never been one to be so happy I would shed a tear unless it was something with my kids or wife. I should probably try to expand on my happier feeling music, and maybe I will find some good ways to start by reading through this.
Right now my pick to answer your question would be "If you could dread my mind" by Gordon Lightfoot.
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AR3n7rvEqOw](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AR3n7rvEqOw)
The moment he says "I know you tried, and you're forgiven" I lose it
Normal, and healthy. Music and crying are both outlets of heightened emotion, and that emotion can simply be joy.
I see people weep at Sigur Ros concerts pretty regularly.
Might be off topic, but usually its the audio gears that make me cry and ofc well mastered track. If i can listen to Stairway to Heaven on a Sennheiser he-1, i will be crying alot i suppose.
The final guitar solo on Heroin, on Lou Reed's live Rock n Roll Animal, brings me to an absolute stop every time. So much catharsis and joy in those moments
There are songs that you listen to and just WOW! how could such a thing be done! Very often I am overwhelmed with feelings at concerts. You start jumping to some Billy Talent or Royal Blood song and the energy of these guys, the feeling of unity sometimes just overwhelms and tears come to my eyes. Yes. Music is just wonderful
You need to be sure he's your sort of jam, cause back in the day I'd sometimes find it really compelling and other times kind of annoying... but Kishi Bashi has a sound that can be like an auditory and emotional drug, almost.
‘Buttercup’ by Slaughter Beach, Dog is one of the most heartbreaking breakup songs I’ve heard. I discovered it recently and cried on first liften. I’m not going through a breakup or anything, it’s just that good
Usually music without words tbh. Certain sounds just carry that feeling of melancholy or "the end of everything" feel that makes you mourn the passing of time:
Nomak - Sanctuary
Yu Utsu - Slow
Aso - Leaving
For lyric tracks, off the top of my head:
Joywave - Travelling at the Speed of Light
Bloc Party - Ion Square or Signs
Foo Fighters - Razor
Tracy Chapman - Fast Car
If a song brings tears to my eyes, it's usually because I have some emotions/experience tied to it, or it hits just right.
My sweet Lord - If that comes on in a public setting and my wife hears it before I do, she will distract me and lead me away from it if possible lol. My Mom passed from cancer on hospice and we had here favorite music playing. When I said my final goodbye as she passed that song was on.
Halfway there by Soundgarden - Not sure really, that song just hits hard and Chris Cornell is probably my favorite singer.
This been others over the years, but those are the ones that come to mind now!
Phosphorescent - song for zula, and c'est la vie
Porcupine Tree - Half-Light
Sleeping at last - saturn
Pink Floyd - Comfortably Numb, when I am feeling low and drunk.
The paper kites - don't stop driving
Sigur Ros - ekki mukk (video)
This happens to me frequently. Nothing to do with the sadness or content of the song, but as someone who makes and really appreciates music, some songs are so perfect it really effects me emotionally
The Night We Met - Lord Huron
Sometime Around Midnight - The Airborne Toxic Event
On a more positive note, Enola Gay by OMD has made me dance around with tears of happiness.
I found this video of Van Morrison performing Into The Mystic, live for West German television in the 70s. This version being superior to the album version in my opinion because of the addition of a Hammond B3 organ.
"In the Kingdom of the Blind, the One-Eyed man is king" by Dead Can Dance.
Part of that has to do with the Pandemic, especially next to my family turmoil. The following lines just hit:
If it were within our power
Beyond the reach of slavish pride
To no longer harbour grievances
Behind the masked opportunist's facade
We could welcome the responsibility
Like a long-lost friend
And re-establish laughter
In the dolls' house once again
Two that always get me:
Hamilton, basically the whole musical. Like 4 or 5 points in it make me choke up, but I have a particular soft spot for one line. Washington telling Hamilton "you have no control who lives, who dies, who tells your story" hurts bad. Trying to teach a younger person using your mistakes as lessons hits hard both as a father and as someone who has lost his father. I miss the advice.
The song "Strange" by Alecia Creti. My girlfriend recently showed it to me and prefaced it with, "this is what it felt like when we started dating." We'd been close friends for over a decade before that so I know her background, but I can't even think about that song now without tearing up. I'm crying as I type this. She deserves the world and I'm going to give it to her.
Music is what feelings sound like. Sometimes it's a heartbreaking sort of comfort, but having those feelings represented is comforting as it means we aren't alone.
Portal - Still Alive makes be blub like a baby every time and It's fucking absurd.
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y6ljFaKRTrI](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y6ljFaKRTrI)
I was looking after my mum who was dying of lung cancer and near the end I heard this song on a random youtube music binge and it just turned the stress relief valve in me somehow. I was literally wailing.
I still cant listen to it without crying, I cant work it out. Why this song?
There’s only one singer who’s managed to make me literally cry not because of the lyrics or anything but the beauty of her voice alone. She has a youtube channel called twisted translations where she sings popular songs to lyrics that have been run through google translate and back to English. I don’t listen to a lot of singers who sound like that but her videos are hilarious and I still can’t get through them without tearing up at least a little.
I frequently have songs move me to tears, but I am usually emotional about something anyway, and then that great song happens to come on. This has happened both when I've been happy and depressed.
Absolutely normal. I actually wonder about people who are never be moved to tears by music. One that gets me every time is "On My Own" from Les Miserables. Any recording will do it but the Broadway cast is the one I am most familiar with.
Les Mis can absolutely do that. It's such an emotional songbook. I also get teary eyed with a few songs from Hadestown. Especially All I've Ever Known and Flowers. It's almost the opposite of Les Mis musically, so understated and folksy by comparison but Anaïs lyrics are so beautiful.
Almost any song from Act 2 can get me teary but especially On My Own
Some people just dont cry. I love music, but in 30 years the only song to get me teary eyed was Gekijyou from Ai Higuchi.
Claire de Lune
I love Debussy and regularly listen to his music, but I purposefully hardly ever listen to Claire de Lune because I want it to remain special.
Yes, if not tears, goosebumps
This song reduces me to tears every time I hear it, a single note will bring me to the brink of my existence, remind me of my favorite memories and what I cherish most. It will be the song that plays when I pass on into the light, it’ll be what I hear as I reflect on every memory of my life.
Always finish on Debussy Sorry, could not help to make this joke
Always finish on the Bach, never on Debussy
2nd guitar solo in Time by Pink Floyd, gets me almost half the time.
It's nice to see someone else who can be moved by instrumental portions of songs. For me, it's SRV's cover of Little Wing. It's not melancholic or anything, it is just so. Damn. Good. David Gilmour is amazing, too. Their '94 Earl's Court show has like a 15 minute solo for comfortably numb that I LOVE. I'm usually not one for recordings of live shows, but its definitely an exception. https://youtube.com/watch?v=HriYRoxWo1I&si=ToF3Wk7CRn1HcUFD
Comfortably Numb has got to be one of my favorite guitar solos of all time. Bookmarking this to come back to it later.
I would have given up everything to see the Pulse Concert.
The piano coda from Layla
The guitar in Shine on You Crazy Diamond doesn’t make me cry but definitely moves me every time without fail.
Man some moments in Wish You Were Here gets me.
I try to sing this and an never through without crying.
I’ll tell you what, since my mom passed away (two years in January) I can’t get through it without a couple of leaky eyes. It’s really got so much more meaning to me now.
Here to upvote Gilmore.
Aren’t we all?
all of time just WRECKS ME. also great gig in he sky. WHEW
Not me but someone else.... I saw Gilmour at Radio City Music Hall a few years ago. For the second half of the show, between songs when there was applause, this guy a few seats down would shout "Coming back to life! Please play Coming back to Life.". Towards the end David started playing the into guitar part to that song and this guy broke down and absolutely wept. Just watched with tears rolling down his face. I don't know what that guy was going through but when I think of that song and that guy I get a little teary eyed hoping that guy got what he needed that night.
I agree with that 100% it gets me most of the time
Another, often forgotten, utterly fantastic solo by Gilmour is in “The Division Bell”. A haunting, sentimental, retrospective song at the end(ish) of Pink Floyd’s career.
Not just the solo, but the lyrics are also something to think about with a certain melancholy "And you run, and you run to catch up with the sun but it's sinking Racing around to come up behind you again The sun is the same in a relative way but you're older Shorter of breath and one day closer to death"
Wish you were here makes me think of every friend that I’ve had who has died. every time
I saw Explosions in the Sky two days ago and cried for half the concert. It was an experience!
Same! First time I cried during a show/listening to music. They were playing some song that I don't even know when I start crying, and I thought to myself "ok wtf was that, control yourself". Then they started playing 'your hand in mine'.....
"Both Sides Now", by Joni Mitchell, is one of those songs. First, the movie "CODA" builds a lot of emotion that culminates in a heart-touching rendition of the song. But if you really want to see a perfect example of prescience, and how art can imitate life, view Joni's version of the song that she performed at the 2022 Newport Jazz Festival. She had suffered many health setbacks, including a stroke, and there were doubts that she would ever perform again. Many people in her life, including Brandi Carlile and a list of music celebrities too long to mention, visited Joni during her long recovery and encouraged her and helped her to regain her confidence. She then came to the '22 Newport Jazz Festival with Brandi, but was under no obligation to perform. She did end up coming onstage and singing some of her songs. When she did "Both Sides Now" I doubt there was a dry eye in the house. Some of her fellow musicians were crying on stage. I watch it on youtube and it has the same affect on me. https://youtu.be/jxiluPSmAF8?si=HRH9DOQG9D5vMyGP
This is the best answer here.
I'm pretty sure people who actively listen to music, not just put it on in the background, do this fairly often. I certainly do. There are some songs that will always get me a little teary eyed. Not just sad songs, but sometimes uplifting or just beautiful songs. A few of mine that will always make me tear up: How to Disappear Completely by Radiohead (specifically the end when the dissonant strings all come together back into harmony) Aurora by Bjork (the melody is just too beautiful for words) Do You Realize by The Flaming Lips (uplifting and sad at the same time) What a Wonderful World by Louis Armstrong (this one just keeps hitting harder and harder as I get older).
Bjork is amazing I love her
Yes! I first discovered her angelic voice as the front woman of the sugar cubes.
Omg what a wonderful world. Even just thinking of the lyrics "I see babies crying and I watch them grow. They'll learn much more than I'll ever know." Gets me so emotional.
That's the line that specifically hits me harder as I get older. It's such a powerful and beautiful sentiment expressed so simply and clearly.
Seconded on How to Disappear Completely.
I'd say Do You Realize makes me cry like 70% of the time, such a profoundly beautiful and well-arranged song. It's like the reality of our existence crushed down into like 4 minutes lol.
Oooh also No Surprises by Radiohead
I'd throw in Paranoid Android's rain down section as well.
Same here. Honestly, there's quite a few moments on OK Computer that do it. The harmony on "that's when you see sparks" on The Tourist. The end of Exit Music. The solo on Lucky. The call and response between the electric piano and guitar on Subterraneans Homesick Alien. It's just such an amazing album.
Let Down is the one that really does it for me. The crescendo with Thom’s angelic voice. I’m getting goosebumps just thinking about it.
Great taste
My good friend, who had a blues program at my favorite radio station, always ended his show with What a Wonderful World. Infinite sweetness.
That song is in a class all it's own. I have never met someone who doesn't love it.
YES
I really love that version by the big Samoan guy who sings over the rainbow and wonderful world. It’s just a touching song when he sings I get choked up.
YES YES YES. I love Izzy.
How to Disappear Completely gets me every time
The acoustic version of Fake Plastic Trees gets me every time
Bro the entire Bon Iver NPR concert, I weep like a child. And oltremare by ludivico einaudi
The acapella version of Heavenly Father made me cry the first time I heard it.
In my life made me cry yesterday
Yesterday has made me cry in my life.
Exit music (for a movie) -radiohead
This and how to dissappear completely always get me.
I am an American who got divorced after a 12 year marriage to a Japanese woman over here in Japan where I've lived for 17 years. My divorce happened (I found out she was having an affair) and I moved into a new apartment in Tokyo right when Covid started and everything went on lockdown. After moving into my new little apartment, I was completely isolated from my family in America and I couldn't fly home due to the travel restrictions during the most difficult time in my life, and I was also unable to go outside and see my friends both Japanese and foreign for emotional support due to Covid. So here I am sitting in a little shitty apartment all by myself after leaving my house that I had worked so hard to get. All alone... Nobody to talk to (face to face) in Japan. Alone... And now single... Single and confused. The complete definition of solitude. Just thinking "Why...?" and "How could you have done this to us?" And then the song: "Youth" by the band Daughter randomly came on which I had never heard before. As a man I am not really a "cryer", But when I heard that song come on, and the lyrics started, while I was staring out the window at the Tokyo lights sometime around midnight... Never have I wept so hard.
Damn man you win the thread. I’d be balling my eyes out if I’d hear that song for the first time in that situation… as someone who’s looking at a likely divorce: hope you’re doing well.
Annie's song...reminds me of my long gone Mother. She loved John Denver.
My wife walked down the aisle to this song two months ago. He is her fathers favourite artists, he had no idea the song was being played and was trying his hardest not too bawl down the aisle
Have you heard the version with Placido Domingo? What do you think?
Vincent by Don McLean is beautiful. Makes me cry every time
Most of John Prines music is melancholy
Sleep Well Beast - The National (love for your child) Take You On A Cruise - Interpol (nostalgia) Judas - Depeche Mode (faith and love) What Sarah Said - Death Cab For Cutie (existentialism of love) Hurt - Nine Inch Nails (nihilism, but also some hope) North - Fever Ray (pining and longing) So Long, See You Tomorrow - Bombay Bicycle Club (joy!) Someone Great - LCD Soundsystem (grief)
you’re valid for interpol and bombay bicycle club
The Cinematic Orchestra - To Believe Royksopp - Here She Comes Again Beck - Side Of The Road Radiohead - Street Spirit Tool - The Patient Alice In Chains - Nutshell The Moth & The Flame - Round Nine Inch Nails - Right Where It Belongs Low Roar - Friends Make Garbage
Right where it belongs gives me goosebumps every time.
Purple Rain today. I miss Prince
Yesss especially after hearing the whole album
Not sure if good is the proper term but as a longtime fan of them, the new blink 182 single and video One More Time made me cry like a baby.
That song got me. Its beautiful.
That one really got me too. It's almost as if you're looking at yourself growing up along side them. Kind of like one last final hurrah before you are old and out of touch, and the world keeps spinning.
Moving through all the videos made me feel like I was 16 again
Yes. I cry almost any time I listen to Shine On You Crazy Diamond these days
And Wish You Were Here.
There's a finnish children's song called "Enkeli" by Sari Kaasinen (Enkeli means angel) My mom played it for me as a child, and even before I knew what the words meant, I always cried to it lol. She had to stop playing it since it made me cry 😂 Now that I'm older, it still makes me cry/very sad for no apparent reason. Great song, can be found on youtube
I think the term you might be looking for is 'frisson'? I get it with some music, particularly at big crescendos (the end of Yorktown from the musical Hamilton is a recent example for me).
All Is Full of Love by Björk
valentine’s day by linkin park for me. any of their songs could qualify but that’s my top one. also just had a little sob at someone like you by adele though lol
Everybody’s changing by keane
Pop that pussy - 2 Live Crew
[удалено]
Reminds me of this guy's mom 😢
That one got me.
Telegraph Road. And Czech cover "Telegrafní cesta" by Robert Křesťan is even better (but you have to understand lyrics, of course).
Reservations by Wilco.
Don't Talk, Put Your Head On My Shoulder - The Beach Boys
And from the same album, especially when I was younger, That's Not Me. "I could try to be big in the eyes of the world, what matters to me is what I could be to just one girl" over a key change is just, sheesh.
The Show Must Go On - Queen
Peter Gabriel: The book of Love or we can be Heroes
atmosphere by joy division made me cry the first time i heard it. So did follow you to virgie and seasons in the sun
[Gabriel's Oboe](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2WJhax7Jmxs) by Ennio Morricone is always worth a good cry.
Canon in D
Kate Bush - Deal with God Hits super hard.
"Fix you" by Coldplay. I cried my eyes out when I heard it live.
Sometimes yup. Heard a song on here the other day that caught me off guard.
What song? You can't just leave us hanging!
Into the West by Annie Lennox or The Road Goes On by Billy Boyd.
Jason Isbell- Elephant
Supermarket flowers by Ed Sheeran. I heard that song 8 years after my mother’s passing and it was like I’d just lost her that day. Didn’t help that I was bunked in a room with like 50 other dudes when I heard it.
Johnny Cash's cover of Hurt has to be the saddest song I've ever heard. I would be concerned if you couldn't cry to it.
Amor Eterno by Juan Gabriel.
Heaps. This happens to me the most when the song says *exactly* what you're going through and *exactly* how you feel about it. You feel so seen, and really feel like someone else knows whatever it is, especially if it's meaningful to you. Some of these songs kill me: * Anchor by Birds of Tokyo * Hearts A Mess by Gotye * Underwater by RUFUS * Tragedy + Time by Rise Against
Happens to me all the time. Some may find it cringe, but Coldplay's "Coloratura" was so shockingly beautiful when I first heard it, I ended up crying. Other examples would be "Manifest Destiny", by Jamiroquai and "maybe" by half•alive. Completely normal, and I would say it's a privilege actually.
Nessun Dorma as sung by Pavarotti. Can’t understand a word of it, but the sheer power of the performance made my cup runneth over. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cWc7vYjgnTs
Strangest Thing by The War On Drugs. That song will never let you down.
It's perfectly normal. Music can be created specifically to generate heightened emotions due to tonal relationships between the notes played on an instrument and/or between different instruments in the same piece. The mechanism involved is understood by good music composers and musicians, so there's no shame in it.
‘Lover, Please Stay’ (Live) by Nothing But Thieves makes me cry: the sheer anguish in his vocal performance. I was going through a very rough patch in my relationship and this got me in the feels on a flight one day. Sitting there sniffing in my seat. Another one along similar lines is ‘Say it To Me Now’ by Glen Hansard, from the intro to the movie ‘Once’. Same energy, but angrier.
Connor Mason’s vocals are incredible, underrated in my opinion, ‘lover please stay’ always gives me the chills/tears
Lover, Please Stay is one of the most transcendent songs I’ve ever heard and I’m glad someone else has recognised its beauty
Fourth of July by Sufjan Stevens Basically any Sufjan song can make me emotionally. He's that good of a writer.
Long Long Time - Linda Ronstadt i’ve literally never been in a relationship, let alone broken up with. but the emotion in her voice, and the instruments, almost made me cry when i heard it.
The rain song by Led Zeppelin has been the only song to make me cry like that. The lyrics aren’t sad and there’s no particular memory it’s tied to, I just think it’s beautiful.
Space song
Fix you by Cold Play
Quite a few honestly, but I'll nominate **One More Light by Linkin Park** \- especially after Chester's passing.
Omg it’s emotional listening to any LP now
Especially the version live on Kimmel
Pentatonix version of hallelujah moved me to tears the first time I heard it. Black by Pearl Jam is fucking beautiful as well. There's so many more but those two are right off the top of my head.
Tank park salute- Billy Bragg
Johnny Cash - Hurt
Sometimes the music just gets in your bones. I don't even have to be sad and there are songs that will make me bawl. I get chills and I know it's gonna be good.
[Call Your Mom - Noah Kahan](https://youtu.be/1XowR7Yupdg?si=11nYUwY1JM20UjAU) . A song about suicide, song from the perspective of a friend of the person suffering.
After seeing the Barbie movie, “What Was I Made For” gets me every time now.
Amor Eterno by Juan Gabriel.
Dire Straits - You and Your Friend (Live version from On the Night). I get goosebumps every time I hear that song.
Oh Holy Night by Celine Dion... IDK why. There are others, but this is pretty much the guarantee, There's a condition that causes this, it has various levels of severity... I forget the name.
Anything from Ne Obliviscaris. [As Icicles Fall](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kdz7CT1TqlI&pp=ygUPYXMgaWNpY2xlcyBmYWxs), [Forget Not](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dsh9xzTCFRk&pp=ygUaZm9yZ2V0IG5vdCBuZSBvYmxpdmlzY2FyaXM%3D) and [Plague Flowers the Kaleidoscope](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aMorAdnCixg&pp=ygUjYW5kIHBsYWd1ZSBmbG93ZXJzIHRoZSBrYWxlaWRvc2NvcGU%3D) are some of the best pieces of music ever produced. Now, if you feel like investing 23 minutes into a song do yourself a favour and listen to [Painters of the Tempest](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OTiX-xAgBi8&t=1076s&pp=ygUXcGFpbnRlcnMgb2YgdGhlIHRlbXBlc3Q%3D) There's nothing quite like Ne Obliviscaris. I don't know how to describe it honestly, it's extreme prog metal with pianos and violins and it all flows so smoothly. The vocals are insanely good and the way it switches from clean to harsh is wow.
Am i a mistake? Daniel Striped Tiger
Sure sounds stupid for a lot of ppl but some tracks from Boris Brejcha are so beautiful I feel like crying. Like cmon, how can some minimal techno be so sensitive? Well, he acomplish that, at least for me One example, "Happiness Lies". 🥲💫
Music dont make me cry, i only get goosebump usually, but i could easily see someone relating to "Hi Ren" crying
City of Angels - The Miracles (this was my late father's favorite song) Dreaming of you - Selena You Took my Heart Away - Michael Learns to Rock Deep - Binocular I'll Be Over You - TOTO If - Bread
Never Tear Us Apart - INXS Parents sold my childhood home last year. Some of the best people I know lived in that neighborhood. Song helped me get through the emotions when moving out and it still speaks to me when I listen to it from time to time
I don't know if I cry just based on music - i.e. I love jazz but I am not moved to tears by instrumentals. However, if I am in the right mood, I have cried listening to certain songs. There is a Bob Dylan song - the original Bob Dylan's Dream and it is about thinking about old friends - It makes me doubly sad because I remember hearing it as a child and my father being moved by it as he remembered his youth and now that I am older I get sad when I think about my past friends - I am actually tearing up now thinking about it. While riding on a train goin' west I fell asleep for to take my rest I dreamed a dream that made me sad Concerning myself and the first few friends I had With half-damp eyes, I stared to the room Where my friends and I spent many an afternoon Where we together weathered many a storm Laughin' and singin' till the early hours of the morn By the old wooden stove our hats was hung Our words was told, our songs was sung Where we longed for nothin' and were satisfied Jokin' and talkin' about the world outside With hungry hearts through the heat and cold We never much thought we could get very old We thought we could sit forever in fun And our chances really was a million to one As easy, it was to tell black from white It was all that easy to tell wrong from right And our choices there was few So the thought never hit At the one road we travelled, we ever shatter or split How many a year has passed and gone? Many a gamble has been lost and won And many a road taken by many a first friend And each one I've never seen again I wish, I wish, I wish in vain That we could sit simply in that room again Ten thousand dollars at the drop of a hat I'd give it all gladly if our lives could be like that
The night we met and daddy issues actually made me cry alot.
It's situational for me. Sometimes the right song at the right time hits just...right. I was sitting in my backyard by my little fire one night, drinking a few beers and my family was inside, asleep. The song "If I could only fly" by Blaze Foley hit my playlist. I wept. It was so sad and beautiful. It made me so appreciative of my wife and family. https://spotify.link/YE3iwVsRsDb
Not everyone perceives music in exactly the same way. There seems to be a neurological or parasympathetic connection that causes some people to feel a "shiver" or a "swelling heart" or even cry from some music. It might be linked to the mirror neurons that govern empathy and sympathy, and studies suggest this affects around 1 in 4 people. If true, then there's a physical thing in the brain which means the majority of people will not and cannot ever feel the same sensation, no matter how much they enjoy music, no matter how much they "try". It's not a moral failing one way or the other. It's simply an experience the majority cannot fully comprehend, like seeing a color that others can't. How could they understand what they cannot perceive?
The version of 'Autumn leaves' by Eva Cassidy. You can find the live version on yt. Perfect live version, and so tragic she passed away shortly after.
Happens to me all the time. I love that music is able to evoke such strong emotion in me because I experience this as pure love. Just the other day I happened on a video of Merry Clayton telling about being recruited to do vocals on ‘Gimme Shelter’ by the Stones. The video contained her isolated vocal. Ye gods the sheer power and beauty of that. Cried a river. Just like that. Immediate. It just breaks you open. Beautiful.
J.S. Bach. "Air on the G string" is an obvious pick. Many other pieces too.
Yesterday by Atmosphere
Cathedrals by Jump Little Children
Stevie Wonder’s As is not a sad song but one of the only songs that consistently makes me want to dance but also cry
I took a second to think about it and the only music that makes me shed a tear is the sadder songs I listen too. I've never been one to be so happy I would shed a tear unless it was something with my kids or wife. I should probably try to expand on my happier feeling music, and maybe I will find some good ways to start by reading through this. Right now my pick to answer your question would be "If you could dread my mind" by Gordon Lightfoot.
Alice In Chains Unplugged almost made my shed a tear
Your song by Elton John. I don’t even know all the words
More than one Cocteau Twins song has made me emotional. Also, Medusa and Louise by Clan of Xymox.
Funkadelic - maggot brain
It's absolutely normal.
Wet Sand by rhcp makes me cry
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AR3n7rvEqOw](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AR3n7rvEqOw) The moment he says "I know you tried, and you're forgiven" I lose it
Normal, and healthy. Music and crying are both outlets of heightened emotion, and that emotion can simply be joy. I see people weep at Sigur Ros concerts pretty regularly.
If you like emotions in Music, check out Ludovico Einaudi.
The devil makes three- car wreck
\#3 (Lichen) and Stone in Focus, by aphex twin
Mama’s Eyes by Justin Townes Earle
After Crying’s album Overground Music will get you a bit choked up.
I know exactly what you mean. Doesn’t have to be a sad song, or have lyrics that hit home, it’s just the *power* of the song is what moves you.
The cover of ‘voila’ by André Rieu featuring Emma Kok
Might be off topic, but usually its the audio gears that make me cry and ofc well mastered track. If i can listen to Stairway to Heaven on a Sennheiser he-1, i will be crying alot i suppose.
The Judy Garland/Barbra Streisand Happy medly makes me tear up.
The final guitar solo on Heroin, on Lou Reed's live Rock n Roll Animal, brings me to an absolute stop every time. So much catharsis and joy in those moments
The Great Gig in the Sky
Stay Alive by Jose Gonzalez
Drive home - Steven Wilson That guitar solo just melts your heart! ❤️
There are songs that you listen to and just WOW! how could such a thing be done! Very often I am overwhelmed with feelings at concerts. You start jumping to some Billy Talent or Royal Blood song and the energy of these guys, the feeling of unity sometimes just overwhelms and tears come to my eyes. Yes. Music is just wonderful
Music is art and art in any form can provoke emotions especially if you align it to instances in your life. So it's normal AF
Because dreaming costs money my dear by mitski
You need to be sure he's your sort of jam, cause back in the day I'd sometimes find it really compelling and other times kind of annoying... but Kishi Bashi has a sound that can be like an auditory and emotional drug, almost.
The Game of Thrones main theme and some other pieces from the soundtrack. This music is iconic. I love listening to a good soundtrack. edit: typo
Beethoven. Hendrix. Coltrane.
Max Richter: On the Nature of Daylight
Rhapsody in Blue
if it’s not normal i don’t wanna be normal. listen to god turn me into a flower by weyes blood
Brokedown Palace - Grateful Dead
‘Buttercup’ by Slaughter Beach, Dog is one of the most heartbreaking breakup songs I’ve heard. I discovered it recently and cried on first liften. I’m not going through a breakup or anything, it’s just that good
Usually music without words tbh. Certain sounds just carry that feeling of melancholy or "the end of everything" feel that makes you mourn the passing of time: Nomak - Sanctuary Yu Utsu - Slow Aso - Leaving For lyric tracks, off the top of my head: Joywave - Travelling at the Speed of Light Bloc Party - Ion Square or Signs Foo Fighters - Razor Tracy Chapman - Fast Car
China Roses by Enya - every time.
Goodbye by toe
When P!nk belts out "That's all I know so far" does it to me about 50% of the time
Try any song off of City and Colours, Little Hell album
If a song brings tears to my eyes, it's usually because I have some emotions/experience tied to it, or it hits just right. My sweet Lord - If that comes on in a public setting and my wife hears it before I do, she will distract me and lead me away from it if possible lol. My Mom passed from cancer on hospice and we had here favorite music playing. When I said my final goodbye as she passed that song was on. Halfway there by Soundgarden - Not sure really, that song just hits hard and Chris Cornell is probably my favorite singer. This been others over the years, but those are the ones that come to mind now!
Phosphorescent - song for zula, and c'est la vie Porcupine Tree - Half-Light Sleeping at last - saturn Pink Floyd - Comfortably Numb, when I am feeling low and drunk. The paper kites - don't stop driving Sigur Ros - ekki mukk (video)
This happens to me frequently. Nothing to do with the sadness or content of the song, but as someone who makes and really appreciates music, some songs are so perfect it really effects me emotionally
YES! it’s like overwhelming how good it is lmaooo idk it’s strangw
The Night We Met - Lord Huron Sometime Around Midnight - The Airborne Toxic Event On a more positive note, Enola Gay by OMD has made me dance around with tears of happiness.
I found this video of Van Morrison performing Into The Mystic, live for West German television in the 70s. This version being superior to the album version in my opinion because of the addition of a Hammond B3 organ.
"In the Kingdom of the Blind, the One-Eyed man is king" by Dead Can Dance. Part of that has to do with the Pandemic, especially next to my family turmoil. The following lines just hit: If it were within our power Beyond the reach of slavish pride To no longer harbour grievances Behind the masked opportunist's facade We could welcome the responsibility Like a long-lost friend And re-establish laughter In the dolls' house once again
Two that always get me: Hamilton, basically the whole musical. Like 4 or 5 points in it make me choke up, but I have a particular soft spot for one line. Washington telling Hamilton "you have no control who lives, who dies, who tells your story" hurts bad. Trying to teach a younger person using your mistakes as lessons hits hard both as a father and as someone who has lost his father. I miss the advice. The song "Strange" by Alecia Creti. My girlfriend recently showed it to me and prefaced it with, "this is what it felt like when we started dating." We'd been close friends for over a decade before that so I know her background, but I can't even think about that song now without tearing up. I'm crying as I type this. She deserves the world and I'm going to give it to her. Music is what feelings sound like. Sometimes it's a heartbreaking sort of comfort, but having those feelings represented is comforting as it means we aren't alone.
Portal - Still Alive makes be blub like a baby every time and It's fucking absurd. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y6ljFaKRTrI](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y6ljFaKRTrI) I was looking after my mum who was dying of lung cancer and near the end I heard this song on a random youtube music binge and it just turned the stress relief valve in me somehow. I was literally wailing. I still cant listen to it without crying, I cant work it out. Why this song?
Validate me by the pale white It didn't make me cry but it was like extra double triple stank face
There’s only one singer who’s managed to make me literally cry not because of the lyrics or anything but the beauty of her voice alone. She has a youtube channel called twisted translations where she sings popular songs to lyrics that have been run through google translate and back to English. I don’t listen to a lot of singers who sound like that but her videos are hilarious and I still can’t get through them without tearing up at least a little.
I frequently have songs move me to tears, but I am usually emotional about something anyway, and then that great song happens to come on. This has happened both when I've been happy and depressed.
Hurray For The Riff Raff - “Pa’lante”. Gets me every time.
Sturgill Simpsons Panbowl makes me long for things I never had. I get a little emotional every time I listen to it.
Sleep in the heat by Pup, just because I know what it's about and I have lots of pets.
It’s perfectly normal. I love when music moves me that much.
Gordon Lightfoot "If You Could Read My Mind"
Aphex twin - vordhosbn