Tolstoy defines art as something born from an artist's recalling an emotion, which communicates that emotion to a second party. Sometimes a second party looks at/listens to/watches/etc. art in order to feel an emotion other than the one she is feeling. For example, she might watch a funny movie to cheer herself up. But sometimes, "improving" a mood by not allowing a "bad mood" to exist doesn't work. Sometimes you just need to feel whatever it is you're feeling.
I'm a big believer in catharsis, and art's role in the process. Some people might say that I like to wallow in sadness, but that's not all there is to it. People are able to feel a terrible, beautiful, wide range of emotion, so why should we try to pretend otherwise? I'm not saying I'm going to go around crying at people whenever I'm having a bad day, but if I'm sad, I want to be able to sit somewhere quiet and listen to sad music. I've heard that sad music helps someone who's feeling sad because someone (the musician) has it worse off (and maybe for some what really helps is schadenfreude), but I think that the key is the ability to relate to another human being on an emotional level.
This is a favorite song of mine (and the video is rather nice, too):
What emotion(s) do you get from it?
Video: "Samson" by Regina Spektor, from Youtube
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