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We examined whether sad lyrics influenced the emotions induced by happy-sounding music. The listening experiment consisted of three conditions: happy-sounding music with sad lyrics sung in a foreign language; the translation of the sad lyrics; and the happy music with the translation of the sad lyrics. Participants rated their emotional perception of the material and their feelings in each condition. The results showed that pleasant feelings of the same intensity were induced when happy-sounding music (with foreign language sad lyrics) and happy music (with translated sad lyrics) were played, but not when sad lyrics were presented alone. Moreover, although the perception of happiness predicted the degree of pleasant feelings when only happy music or only sad lyrics were presented, the perception of sadness predicted pleasant feelings when happy music with sad lyrics was presented. This study suggests that when happy-sounding music with sad lyrics is presented, the listener has pleasant feelings generated by the perception of sadness.
Mori et al. (Wed,) studied this question.