Thompson said the concept of a love song — and by extension, a breakup song — may be written into our genes. Birds are known to serenade potential mates, while mice, humpback whales and other species use vocalizations to attract their partners.

"So among our ancestors, music might have played a role in mate selection and courtship," he said. "It's possible the prevalence of songs about love and courtship is a remnant of this ancestral function."

The Sumerians of Mesopotamia devised a love song by around 2000 BCE, and scholars of ancient Egypt have found love songs inscribed into pottery and written on sheets of papyrus. But it's not clear when the first breakup song arose.

Why breakup songs caught on is less of a mystery, experts said.

"Breakups certainly inspire a rich broth of emotions," said Arianna Galligher, a licensed clinical social worker and director of the Stress, Trauma and Resilience program at the Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center. "For a lot of people, listening to music helps them sort through their own emotional experience."

Sadness is often the primary emotion in a breakup song. But it's certainly not the only one.

The 10-minute version of Swift's "All Too Well" evokes a range of strong feelings, including "sadness at the end of the relationship, nostalgia about the past romance, regret that the relationship failed, anger at being dumped, resentment that the boyfriend moved on to other young women, scorn at his unfaithfulness, and fear of being hurt again," Paul Thagard, a philosopher and cognitive scientist at the University of Waterloo, writes in his forthcoming book "Dreams, Jokes, and Songs."

"I think it is a fabulous song," Thagard said in an interview. "The reason it's such a fabulous song is that it manages to convey a lot of different emotions."

There's no rule that says the emotions in a breakup song have to be negative. If a relationship was a poor fit — or even toxic — it's appropriate to celebrate when it comes to an end, Galligher said.

Likewise, a breakup song suffused with sadness can resonate with a listener in a rock-solid relationship who is coping with another kind of loss.

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