For anyone who listens reverentially in the half-light to Robert Johnson, Nick Drake, or Morrisey, who wait anxiously for new albums from The Cure, Leonard Cohen, or The Blue Nile, who buy up catalogs of Nina Simone, Johnny Cash, or Scott Walker, who search the Web for rarities by Radiohead, Elliot Smith, and Miles Davis, this is the book they've been waiting for. "This Will End in Tears" is both a compendium of the greatest sad songs and artists of the modern era and a collection of essays that attempts to explain what exactly draws us to sad music, and how sad music actually makes us happy. Adam also makes an argument, based partly on the structure of operating systems and popular sites like Pandora, for the existence of a miserablist genre, one that's becoming increasingly more important than traditional genres such as blues, rock, country, etc., one that's organized around the rather more amorphous principle of cosmic grief. Specifically, "This Will End in Tears" will include an A-Z list of entries of the masters of melancholy (from Samuel Barber to Patsy Cline, George Jone to Joy Division, Nico to Hank Williams), a top-100 list of the saddest songs of all time, essays explaining the power of particular songs and artists, and essays explaining particular types of sad music and their effects on the listener. There will also be recommended playlists throughout.

About the Author
Adam Brent Houghtaling is an editor, writer, musician, and digital consultant living in Brooklyn, New York.

Reviews
"A comprehensive, sharply written journey through the music of sadness, of every stripe and from every genre...Whether read straight through or dipped into at random, in times of despair or not, this is a most helpful musical sourcebook through every kind of blue." -- Kirkus Reviews (starred review) "Highly entertaining." -- Publishers Weekly "For the meticulously melancholy music fan in all of us, a celebration of songs with a dark side. This Will End in Tears gathers the downest, doomiest sounds in rock, soul, jazz, the blues, and any music that can put a serious chill in your evening." -- Rob Sheffield, author of Love Is A Mix Tape and Talking To Girls About Duran Duran "Sad sacks of the world: Rejoice! Adam Brent Houghtaling has ingeniously compiled the ultimate guide to this cruel world's maestros of miserabilism. The feel bad book of the year!" -- Craig Marks and Rob Tannenbaum, co-authors of I Want My MTV: The Uncensored Story of the Music Video Revolution "Breaking up is hard to do, but not when you've got a book like this to help you make the saddest playlist of all time. Now, someone pass me a Kleenex...and that Elliott Smith album." -- Leslie Simon, co-author of Everybody Hurts and author of Wish You Were Here "Sad songs say so much, but Adam Brent Houghtaling has a lot to add to the conversation. This Will End in Tears is a book well worth wallowing in." -- Mark Yarm, author of Everybody Loves Our Town: An Oral History of Grunge



Book Information
ISBN 9780061719677
Author Adam Brent Houghtaling
Format Paperback
Page Count 416
Imprint It Books
Publisher HarperCollins Publishers Inc
Weight(grams) 472g
Dimensions(mm) 232mm * 156mm * 26mm