What is a Kind-Hearted Song?

A kind-hearted song is a song that an artist makes to offer comfort to those who are fighting some of life's losing battles.

Bangers are important because they promise us that the rebellion is coming. But they alone are not all that is terrific about music. Kind-hearted songs are at times even more important than bangers.

IU said that she made Love Poem expressly to be a comfort for those going through difficult times.

Other songs I'd say are kind hearted include My Immortal by Evanescence and Hallelujah by Jeff Buckley.

This topic came up for me because Lady Gaga's song Paparazzi came on, and I made the comment that it was probably her most kind-hearted song. I received an objection which is that the song's lyrics tell the tale of someone obsessed with someone else. I then recited a form of the above. I judge Paparazzi by its sound, not just its lyrics. It sounds like it is yearning for something that I can't put my finger on.

The following songs are not kind-hearted because they pick the low-hanging fruit that is a romantic breakup:

Adele's Hello. Adele's Someone Like You. James Blunt's Goodbye my Lover. Lewis Capaldi's Someone You Loved (and even Before You Go, for that matter).

Romance is 5% of life.

And to those who would say that My Immortal is about a breakup, my response is that I never saw it that way and that's not why I fell in love with the song. Whereas my appreciation of the blacklist above has a lot to do with the fact that they're centered on romance.