One way we can meet those needs is through music. Through all this chaos, heartbreak can magnify our needs for comfort, support, and understanding. Why people love breakup songs so much?Ī breakup is a loss, so it evokes everything that comes with loss: confusion, denial, longing, anger, depression, despair. Best-selling digital singles include "Somebody That I Used to Know" by Gotye featuring Kimbra in 2011 (13 million copies), "Hello" by Adele in 2015 (12.3 million copies), and "Love Yourself" by Justin Bieber in 2016 (11.7 million copies). Other high-selling breakup songs include "Un-Break My Heart" by Toni Braxton in 1996 (10 million copies), "Believe" by Cher in 1998 (10 million copies) and "Careless Whisper" by George Michael in 1984 (6 million copies). It was written as a farewell to her one-time partner and mentor of seven years, Porter Wagoner, following Parton's decision to pursue a solo career. The song had originally been written and recorded in 1973 by American singer-songwriter Dolly Parton, and topped the country charts in 1974.
The all-time best-selling single of a breakup song is the 1992 Whitney Houston version of "I Will Always Love You", which sold over 20 million copies. "Against All Odds" pins down how it feels to be broken-hearted, and it's one of the songs most often mentioned when people write to me, describing how it helped them through the trauma of heartbreak". For example, songwriter Phil Collins notes that "People hate a break-up, but they love a break-up song. Listening to breakup songs during a breakup can help the listener to experience a sense of catharsis. As one source states (discussing the upbeat breakup song "Better Things" by The Kinks), "Pop music is littered with break-up masterpieces", but "t's a rare break-up song that isn't bitter". What is a breakup song?Ī breakup song is a song describing the breakup of an intimate relationship, with associated emotions of sadness, frustration, anger, and sometimes of acceptance or relief. Here are the top 20 empowering breakup songs that will help you through your breaking-up time. And some just want to burn the very concept of love to the ground. Others are pensive meditations on human connection.
Some are righteous cries of joy following the end of a rough union. Sadness and grief, sure, but like the events that inspire them, breakup songs come in all flavours.
Like the jaded evil twins of love songs, breakup anthems run the full gamut of emotion. When a relationship comes to a painful end, however, there is one bright side - you get to enjoy breakup songs in a way you might not have before.