“Mitski has joined the war against seasonal depression on the side of seasonal depression,” says X user @guill0tinegirl in response to an announcement concerning Mitski’s new release Nothing’s About To Happen To Me. Mitski is known for making “Sad Girl Music” – a niche she herself seems to resent. Her music is more than just an expression of sadness, and we need to see it for what it is: art.
“Sad Girl Music” is a niche that includes alternative and indie artists who write songs that are vulnerable and melancholic in nature. It is said to be music that embodies the feeling of crying in your bedroom, a niche often imposed on female artists whose music fits this description rather than being a title chosen by the artists themselves. Listeners of this kind of music make jokes about “not giving the day a chance” by starting it off with sad songs. Listeners discuss the visceral emotions they feel listening to “Sad Girl Music” but rarely have anything to say past calling it “sad”.
Mitski tells The Guardian that she is “the place where anybody can put all of their feelings, their ugliness, that doesn’t have a place in their own lives…”. In reducing her music to its melancholic themes, fans begin to reduce Mitski herself to sadness . While Nothing’s About To Happen To Me may deal with intense themes, the songs themselves are a nuanced expression of deep emotions that are meant to do more than just make you feel sad. Songs like “In a Lake” contemplate regret through the metaphor of a small town, connecting the image to the complicated emotion. The album also showcases Mitski’s ability to subvert expectation by juxtaposing somber themes with upbeat and more grunge sound. The album is full of carefully crafted lyrics which touch on complex ideas of mortality and identity. To reduce it to simply being made up of sad songs is to ignore the craft that has gone into the album.
In an interview with Jezebel with Splinter, Boygenius’ Julien Baker, another artist known for her sad music, describes fans and even people in the music industry as having a tendency to characterise women and their art as one dimensional. This takes away their depth and flattens their music. Yes, a song may be sad, but what about the artistry? In the same interview, Phoebe Bridgers remarks that she “[doesn’t] want to sell people the idea that wallowing in your own misery is the thing”.
Reducing female artists to one facet of their work is not a new phenomenon. We see it in the narrative that Taylor Swift only writes about her relationships and also in the discourse around the sexual nature of black female rappers’ music. The question then arises: why does this only seem to happen to women? And seemingly, it all comes back to misogyny. Rarely are women ever given the recognition they deserve for the work they put into their art. Women are seen as emotional beings, so we can acknowledge that part of their work but fail to realise the amount of craft and talent that goes into transforming one’s emotions into art.
Making music is a craft, and a lot of effort goes into creating a work with both beautiful instrumental and complex lyricism. Yes, Mitski’s music can be sad, but it can also deal with other complex emotions and themes. There is no shame in wanting a song you can cry to in your bedroom. We have all been there. But to reduce an artist to merely making music flattens their art and ignores the complexity of their creation. It is time to retire from sadness and really listen to what artists are saying with their work.
Visual: Mila Jordaan
