Neuroscience News: When individuals attend a live concert and listen to music as a group, their brains waves synchronize – a bond that indicates each individual is having a better time as part of a collective. The new findings, reported last month at a Cognitive Neuroscience Society meeting, are a reminder that humans are social creatures, said neuroscientist Jessica Grahn, a Western Psychology professor in the Brain and Mind Institute who co-led the study.
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I love music. The emotions that it can cause in you or the ability to take you to another place, another world, in when your eyes see something else. It is amazing how it can be so influential and affect you so much and in so many different ways. It affects your brain and messes with your emotions and I love it, it is so fascinating. Now it can even synchronize you with other people’s brains. That is insane to me and not surprising. It reminds me of a time I went to a festival and there was this one moment somewhere around ten to fifteen minutes into one persons set and all the entire audience was moving to this song and feeling the song with their emotions, their bodies and everything. That was till this particular song was over because I remember this song, being played live, had transported me to another place, I totally forgot I was at this festival standing right next to one of my best friends. The song ended and I saw the whole audience realize what just happened as my friend and I looked at each other speechless. We were definitely on the same page and I saw it looking at everyone else as well. The swaying stopped because we all realized we had just been doing it without thinking. One of the best moments of my life and the connectedness to everyone was very strong and true. This is just one story that sort of proves what this article talks about.
I’m not surprised that people’s brain waves sync up. There is definitely a connection between people when they hear live music together. I thought it was interesting that people enjoyed the concert more when their brain waves were more in sync with each other. Since this study was conducted to mimic concerts, I wonder if similar phenomenon occurs with brain waves in theater where some of the songs are meant to be louder and quieter. I thought it was interesting that groove is a psychological term. I was surprised to read that bobbing your head indicated that you are enjoying the music more. I wonder if that it could be done in the opposite way, where if you start to bob your head you could trick yourself into the enjoying the concert more. I’m excited what further research they are doing and what else we will learn about the human brain.
Music is this amazing thing that has the ability to transport you to a whole other plane and experience things unlike any other. Live music in any setting also has this unique quality to not only transport an individual listener to a world of their own, but also transport a collective group into a feeling of community united by the music. I got to see this and be a part of this last night first hand at the Carnival Spring Concert. It was so amazing to just see the audience’s reaction to the music and everything that was happening on stage that being lights, the LED wall, sound, and the performers movements. It is no surprise that they have found another psychological phenomenon when it comes to music. Music has this amazing power. I love being a part of the audience and apparently, I enjoy being at front of house and helping make the concert into the transportive experience experienced by the audience.
This is something that isn’t necessarily surprising, but I still find it fascinating nonetheless. When you are in a moment of truly being present in the music you are hearing on your own, your brain and your heart really do respond to the energies that the music is giving off. Imagining that on the massive scale of a concert, which is a place in which everyone is there to be truly present with what they are seeing, and what they are seeing is, in every way possible, magnified and wildly exaggerated. It is absolutely believable that their bodies would sync with the music, and then, by default, considering they are experiencing the same thing, with each other. I think that we have all experienced this at one time or another being at a concert for an artist whose work excites us and that we admire, and its really indescribable. I hope that its something that everyone can experience at some point in their life because it is absolutely wonderful.
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