The emotional content in a piece of music is usually critical to understanding the best approach for the mastering process on that particular record. This is arguably more important than genre, style or similar factors when mastering a client’s work. Emotional content can give a mastering engineer guidance to the tools needed to help the music convey the artist’s intent. It’s not absolutely necessary and in some instances the record may be more about technical chops or presenting a purely intellectual idea. The majority of the time emotional content does matter and is often the most important element to get right.
Emotions are often the main currency in a piece of music. Artists are expressing something and emotions are almost always at the top of that list. Think about your favorite records and I’ll bet that the majority of them have an emotional appeal that makes you feel something. It could be joy, sadness, melancholy, euphoria, the list goes on. When a mastering engineer is listening closely to what is being presented that emotional content is a superb informant of how to approach the mastering that record.
Sometimes that emotional content is spelled out clearly. For instance, overt lyrics in a love song can reveal the intention of the music. A song that contains lyrics about a lost love from long ago lets you know that the song is about love, maybe loss, and the words may hint at the bittersweet way our memories reveal those things to us. At other times, the lyrics might be a red herring, hinting at one thing while the music is telling you something else.
Emotional content can also be discerned in the arrangements and mix. If the record is upbeat with fun sounding, loose jangley guitars and a in a major key with happy sounding chords it’s hard to feel down even when the lyrics might suggest otherwise. There’s two pieces of information being presented, the happy music and the lyrics that are otherwise. Which direction would that lead you to go? One? The other? Both? Neither?
Finally, the performance of the artists and players often has the clearest indication of the emotional content of a record. The happiest song sung and played in a sad fashion by great artists could probably make you cry regardless of the happy quotient of the original version of the song. Listen to different versions of Piece of My Heart (written by Jerry Ragovoy and Bert Berns). In particular compare Erma Franklin’s original recording of the song with the version recorded by Big Brother and the Holding Company with Janis Joplin on vocals. They’re both great records, but with one I feel the deep emotional pain and resolution not to be consumed by it. In the other, it’s a headlong dive into the pain, taking it and not remolding it into resolution but tearing it apart at the source. Both these songs aren’t happy, for sure, and they are livid with real raw emotions, but the presentation, especially of the vocals, comes at the idea of loss and pain from very different vantage points. One is deep and dramatic with pain, the other on fire consuming the pain.
Obviously there’s no real rules for what should be done with any piece of music. Most people have heard songs that are essentially dark sounding with respect to the music and mix choices, but still sound upbeat and fun. You’ve probably heard songs that are bright and shiny that make you feel down, sad, or mental, too. The musical language is rich with contradictions and exceptions. Just like people are.