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  • This Will End in Tears: The Miserabilist Guide to Music by Adam Brent Houghtaling book cover
  • This Will End in Tears: The Miserabilist Guide to Music by Adam Brent Houghtaling book cover
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This Will End in Tears: The Miserabilist Guide to Music

by Adam Brent Houghtaling

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A cross-genre map of melancholy in popular music

$15.84 USD
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Paperback New English

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AlbakiReads Editorial

A cross-genre map of melancholy in popular music

Adam Brent Houghtaling organizes a wide-ranging survey of melancholy music around the artists and albums that define what he calls the “miserabilist” landscape. Moving across eras and styles—from Robert Johnson and Edith Piaf to Patsy Cline, Joy Division, the Cure, and Radiohead—the book treats sadness not as one genre’s territory but as a recurring musical language. Its subject is also the apparent paradox at the heart of sad songs: why music centered on loss, longing, or despair can offer pleasure and connection. Part reference guide, part exploration of an enduring musical mood, it places familiar names alongside a broader history of emotionally downcast song.

Good fit for readers who enjoy

  • Music fans interested in sad songs across genres and decades
  • Listeners curious about the connections between blues, country, chanson, post-punk, and alternative music
  • Readers seeking a reference-oriented exploration of artists and albums

Themes

Melancholy in musicSad songsMusic historyGenre connectionsEmotional listening

Based on publisher information and book metadata.

Book overview

This Will End in Tears is the first ever and definitive guide to melancholy music. Author Adam Brent Houghtaling leads music fans across genres, beyond the enclaves of emo and mope-rock, and through time to celebrate the albums and artists that make up the miserabilist landscape. In essence a book about the saddest songs ever sung, This Will End in Tears is an encyclopedic guide to the masters of melancholy--from Robert Johnson to Radiohead, from Edith Piaf to Joy Division, from Patsy Cline to The Cure--an insightful, exceedingly engaging exploration into why sad songs make us so happy.
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