Why recorded music isn’t as good as the live experience, according to science
If the shutdown of the cultural sector during the pandemic taught us anything, it was the vital importance of live music scenes, both for local economies and for the mental health of music fans. If you were anything like me, you spent the pandemic attending ‘virtual’ gigs over video calling platforms, desperately trying to pretend that it resembled anything remotely close to being packed into a local grassroots venue, complete with sticky floors and cheap lager. But what exactly is it about live music that is so captivating? Well, as with most things, science has the answer.
There is certainly something special about experiencing music within a live setting. Even if you were to spend your life savings on the most advanced and professional hi-fi system the world has ever seen, you could never come close to truly replicating the sound or atmosphere of a live performance. After all, live music is not just about the music itself; it’s the surrounding atmosphere, the excitement, the sharing of the music you love with friends and strangers alike.
Furthermore, unless you’re in the audience for Top of the Pops, hearing the live version of a song is often entirely different from the studio release, adding new layers to the artistic expression and performance of an artist. Through seeing an artist live, fans can build a sense of connection with those people, which is much more difficult to achieve via digital downloads or even physical media.
Seemingly, though, the superiority of live music is not limited to soppy sentimental ideas about shared experiences or creating memories with friends. According to the world of science, the human brain reacts quite differently when hearing a live performance as opposed to listening to a recording.
Neuroscientists at the Universities of Zurich and Oslo sought to figure out how hearing live music affects the mind. The scientists created an experiment that monitored participants’ brain activity while listening to a live piano performance and a pre-recorded piano performance. The results clearly showed that live music performances have a much deeper emotional impact on the mind than pre-recorded music.
Published by PNAS, the results of the experiment found that, regardless of style or mood, live music stimulated the amygdala in the brain more so than pre-recorded music. Scientists further discovered that live music allows listeners to track and analyse pitch and tempo to a much greater extent than pre-recorded. Of course, the experiment was hardly reminiscent of a true live music experience for most people, but it is nevertheless useful in explaining the powerful nature of live music.
So, next time that you spend an evening in a tiny room populated by beaming and profusely sweating music fans, just remember that the experience is actually stimulating your brain activity. Anybody who has ever attended a music festival, awash with ket-ridden teenagers and people whose blood has become virtually indistinguishable from Dark Fruits, will probably find it difficult to believe that live music breeds increased brain activity, but alas, science rarely lies.
