How Live Music Moves Us: Head Movement Differences in Audiences to Live Versus Recorded Music

Abstract

A live music concert is a pleasurable social event that is among the most visceral and memorable forms of musical engagement. But what inspires listeners to attend concerts, sometimes at great expense, when they could listen to recordings at home? An iconic aspect of popular concerts is engaging with other audience members through moving to the music. Head movements, in particular, reflect emotion and have social consequences when experienced with others. Previous studies have explored the affiliative social engagement experienced among people moving together to music. But live concerts have other features that might also be important, such as that during a live performance the music unfolds in a unique and not predetermined way, potentially increasing anticipation and feelings of involvement for the audience. Being in the same space as the musicians might also be exciting. Here we controlled for simply being in an audience to examine whether factors inherent to live performance contribute to the concert experience. We used motion capture to compare head movement responses at a live album release concert featuring Canadian rock star Ian Fletcher Thornley, and at a concert without the performers where the same songs were played from the recorded album. We also examined effects of a prior connection with the performers by comparing fans and neutral-listeners, while controlling for familiarity with the songs, as the album had not yet been released. Head movements were faster during the live concert than the album-playback concert. Self-reported fans moved faster and exhibited greater levels of rhythmic entrainment than neutral-listeners. These results indicate that live music engages listeners to a greater extent than pre-recorded music and that a pre-existing admiration for the performers also leads to higher engagement.

Audience spontaneous entrainment during the collective enjoyment of live performances: physiological and behavioral measurements

“…Recently, research on audiences of live performances has gained interest in part because group of spectators provide a valid and ecological setting for investigate group dynamics during collective experiences. In particular, physiological synchrony between audience members and performers has been found to be influenced by spectators' artistic preference 41 , subjective attentional modulation 42 and intersubjective engagement 43 . Similarly, spectators' enjoyment during a live dance performance seems to be sensitive to how dancers coordinate and synchronized their movements, rather than how much they move 33 .…”

Effect of Music Therapy on Pain After Orthopedic Surgery—A Systematic Review and Meta‐Analysis

“…This result is not in line with the findings of Jenna and Silverman, who concluded that live music seems to be effective in reducing pain. Swarbrick et al also determined that live music engages listeners to a greater extent than pre‐recorded music. However, Lee illustrated that there was no statistical difference between MM and MT ( P = 0.23) in their meta‐analysis, but that both music interventions played a vital role in benefitting patients in different ways.…”

The Relevance of a Conductor Competition for the Study of Emotional Synchronization Within and Between Groups in a Natural Musical Setting

“…Because of the competition timing, we could not gather the opinions of all respondents regarding the wearable devices: this meant we were unable to correlate the agreement of the participants and scales. Finally, since one aim of the study was to evaluate the feasibility of neurophysiological recordings in natural conditions, we did not record audio and video motion that would be appropriate for study of the orchestra and public (Swarbrick et al, 2019). Audio and video motion, combined with neurophysiological recordings, could offer a unique approach in the understanding of emotional synchronization and should be included in future research.…”

“…Most people listen to music for its emotional effect (Nieminen et al, 2012) and research has shown the pleasurable effect of music (Grewe et al, 2007;Salimpoor et al, 2009Salimpoor et al, , 2011. The social connection with other people and being connected to the performers are the main factors that motivate people to attend live performances and enjoy them (Burland and Pitts, 2014;Leante, 2016;Swarbrick et al, 2019). Music is a form of cultural communication (McCormick, 2009).…”

“…Thus, to study interpersonal synchronization and the mechanisms involved in social interactions, it is possible to simulate research protocols that are as realistic as possible whilst maintaining ecological validity. Ecological experiments in the musical context have already measured head movement synchronization by simulating a live concert in a living lab (Swarbrick et al, 2019), or measured the heart rate of a few people among a large audience listening to a piano performance in an auditorium (Shoda et al, 2016). Otherwise, when natural settings are not reproducible in ecological conditions, it is possible to benefit from the specific design arising from a natural situation.…”