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Live concerts trigger stronger emotional response than recorded music, says study
Music is more therapeutic than entertaining for many. Everybody has a favorite genre they believe is most impactful, but the medium for music seems to have a greater effect on our emotions, according to a recent study.
Another recent study by scientists at Shanghai Jiao Tong University found that classical music can lift your mood and help with depression. The same may trigger a stronger emotional response when heard at a live setting.
Live music creates a stronger emotional response
Music has evolved drastically over the years. Songs are now available at our fingertips unlike a few decades ago when tape recorders and discman were a thing.
However, no matter how convenient technology is and despite the endless options on apps or other devices to enhance your listening experience, music concerts are most impactful emotionally.
Researchers at the University of Zurich wanted to understand the effects of live music vs recorded music on emotional processes in the human brain.
So, they made participants listen to a pianist playing live, recorded the reaction in the center of the brain and repeated the experiment with a recorded version of the same music.
They found that live music elicited higher and more consistent brain activity than 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,” said a researcher involved in the study.
Why live music is more impactful
There are a couple of reasons why music you hear in a live setting is more effective than through any other medium.
Upon analyzing how the piano music aligned with the listener’s brain activity, the researchers found that only live music showed a “strong coupling between” the musical performance and the brain activities.
The other�possibility lies in the evolutionary root of music as ScienceDaily explains. As humans were first exposed to music in a natural social setting, the experience of a live concert takes us on an “emotional journey”.
