Though this doesn't seem to apply to all music genres, I get the impression that some of them have an "underlying mood".
For instance, flamenco (the genre I specialize in) has strong melancholy undertones. Even the "happiest" forms (or "palos") of flamenco seem tinged with sadness. In other words, a "happy" flamenco piece will still sound more melancholy than a "sad" gipsy jazz piece, for example.
I'm somewhat familiar with the concept of rasa in Indian music. However, I was wondering if Western music had a term of its own to describe this. The term "mood" doesn't seem to suffice (since you could describe the mood of, say, an alegrias as upbeat even if there are strong melancholy overtones).