When someone says "this song is haunting (me?)" should I understand "haunting" as annoying, or it is a music that I like a lot and can keep singing the whole day? The dictionaries in the Internet did not help.
Learn English – Does “haunting music” have a negative meaning
meaning
Best Answer
Absolutely not.
Haunting in this context refers to a mood. Haunting music evokes emotion. It's the kind of music you might hear in the background of a tense scene in a movie. It's often marked by minor chords or deep instruments. Adjectives might include somber or moving. You can read about what one person regards as "haunting" classic music at this blog post: The Most Hauntingly Beautiful Classical Compositions Ever Written.
Macmillan defines the word as:
When it comes to the arts, though, this "sad" feeling is not necessary a bad kind of sad; rather, it can be quite cathartic.
I also like the meaning found at Collins:
You probably wouldn't play haunting music at a wedding, but it could be very fitting for a funeral.
Haunting music is not limited to the classical genre, either; many dark rock songs could also be dubbed as haunting. What's regarded as haunting is partly a matter of taste, but I think the song Kettering by the Antlers would qualify as haunting modern music.