In statement published by the company on August 21st, Spotify wrote:
Lana Del Rey’s “Summertime Sadness” stuck in your head? You’re not alone. On Spotify this summer, sad songs are getting us in our feels, thanks to our listeners who are unapologetically expressing their emotions. “Sad” is the most-searched term for Gen Z listeners on Spotify globally, and they’re tuning into our sad playlists—including pop-infused sad hour, R&B-inspired All The Feels, rap-heavy tear drop, sad sierreño, sad girl country, and sad girl starter pack—more than any other age group.
To match the vibe in the U.S. and Canada, we launched bummer summer, the ultimate lineup of moody jams and soul-filling songs. […] The playlist echoes the honesty and transparency that Gen Zs emulate in their lives and listening—and harnesses the ability of emotive, lyrical music to enhance any mood.
Krista Scozzari, Spotify’s North American Marketing Lead, commented on the move, saying:
There’s something really unique about this generation. They embrace their feelings so much. They’re really flipping the stigma of vulnerability. Gen Z has brought a raw, authentic new reality to expressing their emotions, and we’re seeing that in how they listen. We wanted to celebrate this powerful thing they’re doing.
With this campaign, we really wanted to celebrate how sharing sad music helps us feel more connected. Our listeners want to feel seen and heard, and to help normalize their feelings and humanity, hopefully helps them feel all that.
When I think about bummer summer, I recognize that it’s not just about listening to sad music when you’re sad, but listening to sad music when you’re feeling any sort of emotion.
Sad music is something that feels better than anything else sometimes. There’s this really powerful way that the lyrics and the tempo of the music just allow you to really reflect, to feel your feelings. It’s powerful for people no matter what mood they’re in.
She said
Dr. Michael Bonshor, PhD, a music psychology expert, also commented Bummer Summer, explaining,
Sad music can help us to release, express, channel, or purge our emotions. It often has slower speeds, which slows down our breathing and heart rate when we listen so that we feel more relaxed and tranquil. In addition to hearing slower speeds, hearing music with sad lyrics creates a sense of personal connection with the artists who wrote them—it validates that our human experiences are shared.
Singer-songwriter David Burke, the voice for the group “d4vd,” added, “When I’m making music, I try to keep in mind that our current generation is often misunderstood and that people don’t always know where they fit in.”
I don’t think music is just about changing the listener’s mood anymore, I think it’s a way to share a mood or feelings with the artist. I try to give my listeners the most intimate feelings that I’m going through and see who else is feeling the same way.
I want to make sure that people are feeling less alone in the world, because they have me and my music to relate to. That’s what we’re hoping that all of the songs on the playlist will do.
Burke said
The WinePress has noted across a number of different articles that depression and suicide rates have rocketed significantly higher since the Covid lockdowns and isolation began in 2020. This release of the Bummer Summer playlist comes just two weeks after the CDC revealed suicides set a new record-high in 2022. In June the CDC had also noted that there was a huge rise in attempted suicides in children by poisoning as teens alike are reportedly overdosing on pharmaceutical grade melatonin supplements.
Moreover, that same month The WP cited an anesthesiologist who revealed that he’s never seen depression this bad before, especially with Gen-Z.
Depression has almost become normalized; and in the Gen-Z population they are subject to so many more pressures that make them lonely – up to 50% of Gen-Z’ers appear to be lonely,
And when they come into the operating room it just blossoms because of the vulnerability, the stresses, and so much more that surgery is bringing up in these young individuals, who don’t yet have the coping mechanisms to be able to be resilient in light of these acute stressors.
Dr. Anthony Kaveh, MD, said
AUTHOR COMMENTARY
As he that taketh away a garment in cold weather, and as vinegar upon nitre, so is he that singeth songs to an heavy heart.
Proverbs 25:20
This proverbs rings true with this Bummer Summer; and I mention this report because it further demonstrates how people are at their wits end with everything. The nation is coming apart at the seems and people are losing it, none more so than Gen-Z: a lost, forgotten, rejected, confused generation that has no clue where to turn and where to go.
In unsurprising fashion, instead of making any real attempt to alleviate the problem, Spotify will only compound the problems by showcasing songs that are sad and will make the people listening continually drown in their misery, contrary to what that psychology “expert” claims. One of the songs in that playlist that I know of is “Creep” by Radiohead, and anyone who’s listened to that song knows it is a very depressive song that will not “release, express, channel, or purge our emotions.” But that is the backwards logic of today and is a reason why people are so messed-up in the head.
[7] Who goeth a warfare any time at his own charges? who planteth a vineyard, and eateth not of the fruit thereof? or who feedeth a flock, and eateth not of the milk of the flock? [8] Say I these things as a man? or saith not the law the same also? [9] For it is written in the law of Moses, Thou shalt not muzzle the mouth of the ox that treadeth out the corn. Doth God take care for oxen? [10] Or saith he it altogether for our sakes? For our sakes, no doubt, this is written: that he that ploweth should plow in hope; and that he that thresheth in hope should be partaker of his hope. (1 Corinthians 9:7-10).
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Ecclesiastes 7:2
“It is better to go to the house of mourning, than to go to the house of feasting: for that is the end of all men; and the living will lay it to his heart.”
Hopefully, true King James Bible believers will be able to witness to and edify Gen Z.
Another, like you say, canary in the coal mine, that America is finished and is now going to be destroyed. No more sun and fun for America, it’s time for doom and gloom.
Something’s got to happen first before we can witness to these people. My generation (Z) is not really open to the idea of God because we’ve seen many Christians by name, but not by deed. A war would be good because it’ll purge the false prophets from the land and people will be asking about the after life.
Worldy music, movies and TV shows, all designed to make people excessively emotional and soft, and to kill logical thinking.
Adding this quote I came across just minutes ago:
““The strongest appeal you can make is emotionally. If you can get their emotions going, make them forget their logic, you’ve got them. At MTV, we don’t shoot for the 14-year olds, we own them!” – MTV is Rock Around the Clock, Philadelphia Inquirer, Nov. 3, 1982”