Trost and colleagues investigated human responses to live and recorded music. They report that “Unlike recorded music, intense musical emotions are most often expressed in live musical performances and are experienced when listening to live music in concerts, given the dynamic relationship between performing artists and the audience. Here, we show that live music can stimulate the affective brain of listeners more strongly and consistently than recorded music.”
Wiebke Trost, Caitlyn Trevor, Natalia Fernandez, Florence Steiner, and Sascha Fruhholz. 2024. “Live Music Stimulates the Affective Brain and Emotionally Entrains Listeners in Real Time.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, vol. 121, no. 10, e2316306121, https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2316306121