Melancholic Melodies - Gender and Sadness in The "Sad Girl Indie" Genre
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2025-07-07
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en
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The melancholic subject is a character within the ‘sad girl indie’ genre that has risen to popularity over the last decade, largely due to the infamous Spotify playlist called “Sad Girl Starter Pack”, which featured songs that characterized one’s music taste as yearning. With over a million saves, young girls around the world have found solace in the sad lyrics in the comfort of their bedrooms. This type of emotional music became so popular that it evolved into its own genre name: Sad Girl Indie. This thesis offers an analysis of the ‘sad girl indie’ genre, considered a subgenre within the vague bounds of indie music. Therefore, it is difficult to clearly define what falls under this term, as it is more defined by emotional expression than by specific musical characteristics. The thesis explores the historical implications of the pathologizing of the female psyche and how this is represented in the arts, especially within the music scene. It questions how the tortured artist is revered and desired by the music industry and society as a whole. This stereotype, and the genre, is characterized by vulnerability and melancholy. This can become problematic if this image becomes romanticized by the public, especially in the context of rising parasocial fan culture over the last decade. The thesis provides a methodological framework that combines lyrical analysis of the songs most represented in the genre with a discourse analysis of interviews with relevant artists. These findings are analyzed with a theoretical framework of Sigmund Freud on the melancholic subject and Theodor Adorno on the commodification of popular music, supported by contemporary literature on sad girl culture. Therefore, this thesis aims to uncover how the melancholic subject is represented and romanticized in the ‘sad girl indie’ genre by reinforcing feminine stereotypes based on historical views of the female psyche.
Keywords: Commodification, Community, Femininity, Melancholy, Sad Girl Culture
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