Emotional Draw of Live Music Versus Streamed



 A new study from the university of Zürich has found that live Music provides a stronger emotional response than listening to music from a device. Concerts are shown to closely connect Performers with the audience.

Music Can have a strong effect on our emotions. Studies Show that listening to recorded music stimulates an emotional and imaginative process in the brain. But what happens at a folk concert or music festival?

Zürich researchers conducted an elaborate experiment in which a pianist changed the live music they were playing to intensify the emotional reactions in the amygdala, The emotional center of the brain. During the experiment, researchers used magnetic resonance imaging to measure the activity in the amygdala Of the participants and the performer in real time. 

Based on these measurements, the pianist, then immediately changed his performance to further intensify the audiences emotions.

To compare reactions, the listeners were played a recording of the same music performed by the same musicians, without the Neurofeedback loop. 

“ Our study showed that pleasant and unpleasant emotions performed as live music illicit much higher and more consistent activity in the amygdala Then recorded music. The live performance also stimulated a more active exchange Of information in the whole brain, which points to strong emotional processing in the affective and cognitive parts of the brain,” reports Sascha Fruhholz, Professor of neuroscience at University of Zürich. 

The researchers Also studied the piano music aligned with the audiences brain activity.

A strong synchronization between subjective emotional experience and the auditory brain which assesses the music according to its acoustic quality only was observed when the audience was listening to live music. 

People have always used tools and instruments to make live music. It wasn’t until the 20th century that music was able to be recorded on devices and made widely available.  

Fruhholz states “ People want the emotional experience of live music. We want musicians to take us on an emotional journey with their performances.”

An interesting study! 


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