It is what you make of it.

OK, to be fair I think this is a decent topic to be talking about.
In the most simple sense, music written with the intention of expressing the sad feelings of the writer in a way that makes it obvious what their feelings are is what would usually be labelled "depressing", because it's attempting to share something with the listener, in this case an idea of what it's like to be them.

Just for the record, that's what I'd see as good songwriting. In one sense I don't mind what emotion the writer is trying to convey, I'm more interested in them doing it well.
I'd prefer to hear an insightfully written song that conveyed the feelings of sadness over a tacky, inane song about some poorly expressed sense of happiness.

Furthermore, I'd like to question the merit of complaining about something being "unjustly" labelled depressing. When you are unhappy, you want to hear someone who knows what it's like to be you, or who knows what you're going through. I see that as something of value, and would object to that being labelled as a bad thing.

Come to a pick a fight, have ya? Well I'm your man.

You're showing me that you don't really grasp linguistic nuance while you're also saying you know a thing or two about word-choice; Why is depressing a lazy word? What word would you use instead? What do you think music does to people that the rest of us plebs are calling "depressing."

I look forward to the free enlightenment I'm going to get, and on behalf of all MB - thank you.

Yeah but they're still bouncing that off the wall of culture. The noise, being intentional, is still working around the parameters of culture, even if its flouting them. Noise in culture has direction.

Noise outside of culture is functional at best. At worse, the result of things moving and the chaos of the universe. A wildfire makes noise, but thats not the same noise as an album called noise, thats intentionally making sounds to sound like it has no order.

Yes I agree - it's not necessarily good or bad, it's just part of the human condition. If you relate to a song like 'Ramblin' Man' by Hank Williams - there can, on one level, be a certain satisfaction in seeing yourself in that song - I'm a Ramblin' Man! Hank GETS me! - but on another level, it's a sad song because Hank is also saying, baby I love you but this is the way I am - and you can relate to that too. It might indeed leave you feeling a little depressed, but just finding that you have something to relate to, that you're not necessarily alone in how you feel can be a very enriching and valid experience, even if it's not always a happy one.

Well put mate!

I was wanting to say something on these lines but you've put it better.
Taking that slightly further, I was reflecting a bit along the following lines: the OP referred to music being depressing "apart from bringing up depressing memories".

I'd like to suggest that this isn't so simple - we can only feel sad through music because we already know what it's like to feel sadness and to be unhappy. Basically, I was listening to "How to Grow a Woman From the Ground" two nights ago, and the very fact that it was so sad and the imagery of the song so dark yet sung so beautifully , made me reflect on an intensely painful memory of the last month, the sequence of events playing out in slow motion. And the song made me sad because although it had no connection to the events it made me sad by association the emotions with the ones I felt.

So the point is that songs may have the effects of producing emotions in the listener which are depressing.

By pointing it out I was hoping to mean that there are still intentional artistic qualities that can be evoked with such presentation. I never once implied that it had no culture, but merely surprised how music could be used.

A song doesn't have to be written in a depressing tone or mood to evoke those feelings. Every time I hear a bad cover version of a classic, a "clubbed-up" slow song (Harry's Game, I'm looking at you!) or a pointless extended mix of something that wasn't too good in the first place, I can get depressed. Sometimes it's more a sense of loss, something that was great has been, erm, bastardised and sterilised for the mass market --- "Hallelujah" by Leonard Cohen is one such. There are good versions, certainly, but there are some woeful ones. So the song may not have been written to be depressing, but it may evoke these feelings for other reasons.

One of the guys made a great point here earlier: sometimes the link your mind and heart makes to a song can make it depressing. I had an experience like this with Dan Fogelberg's "Windows and walls", as it reminded me my mother liked it and soon after she died I found myself crying when I played it. James Blunt's "No bravery" makes me cry, just because of the lyric content and how soulful and intense and yet simple it is. "Angel" by Sarah McLachlan always catches in my throat. It can be the arrangement of the song, the way it's sung, the lyrics, the mood it evokes, anything.

Remember, we don't all want to be happy happy chappies all the time. That would be unhealthy. Sometimes the pressures of life get to you and you want to slide into a morass of depression: the only way then to get out of it is to go through it, and sad music can aid that process. Depressing/sad music also shows the amount of their heart and soul that the artiste has put into writing the song. Fleetwood Mac's "Songbird" is another one: always tear up, not sure why. It just has that effect on me.

Now, if you listen to depressing music ALL the time, then sure that's not good. But there most certainly is music that is meant to be depressive: have you never heard of the subgenre Depressive Black Suicidal Metal?

Also, I would say the reason you're seeing this forum as unfriendly is down to you: you've come in, asked a question and proceeded not only to take apart everyone's reply because they don't agree with you, but you have in fact been quite rude and for someone who's only here a wet day that is not advisable. As a pure point of courtesy from one human being to another it's also not so clever, and then to hit back at US for not being friendly...!:confused:

Music can be depressing generally when the song has the volin. Usually then the song can be very depressing because it could be a song of a tribute to a musician or a person you know. Also music can be depressing with someone's tone. Some singers like to sound too emotional and that usually means that they might be depressed themselves and they want you to feel their pain.

Jesus what's with all the personal stabs?