Messiah en masse: Why Do We Go To Concerts?

Whether it's The Rolling Stones, Lady Gaga, the Jonas Brothers, or a 140 person choir singing Handel's Messiah, we humans like to listen to music together.  In the same space physically, we gather together for a shared experience of other people making music.  Why is that?  How does a crowd listening experience differ from listening to the same music on our own?  It can't be the quality of the auditory experience because except for state-of-the-art concert halls listening on our home equipment generally provides a better quality auditory experience than we get in an auditorium or coliseum or even--extreme example--sitting on the lawn in Central Park.  

 
In fact, last summer I was one of many thousands sitting on blankets on a warm summer evening in New York's incomparable Central Park, wine and picnic basket at the ready, listening to the hum of conversation going on during the New York Philharmonic's concert.  In truth, you could barely hear the music.  Not because the loudspeakers were deficient.  It was because everyone there chose to talk to their picnicking friends rather than listen to the music.  So why were they there?  I tried to envision these many thousands of people showing up on the same evening if they had seen signs that said "Massive Picnic in Central Park.  Bring your own food, blankets and wine...and come prepared for a good time talking with your friends."  I'm certain no one would show up.  The concert was the catalyst for people showing up, but once there all but a few ignored the music and reveled in the shared picnic atmosphere.  As I looked around me, few people even glanced at the printed program. 

Now that's not the case for most arena concerts.  People are there to hear the music...but it's all about hearing the music along with thousands of other fans. 

 
Last night we went to hear the Messiah sung by a combined chorus of three different choirs, accompanied by an orchestra.  It was held at the Holy Trinity Church on Manhattan's west side, not the best acoustics in the world, but it was sublime.  Susan Orkin, a friend of mine, was one of the singers and it was because of her I was there.  I sat there thinking, would I have pulled out the Messiah recording I have and listened to it at home on a Sunday evening for two hours?  Unlikely.  But I was transfixed by the music last night, all of which I've heard many times before.  There is something so special about being there when other human beings are performing, knowing that specific experience--though it is recordable both audibly and visually--is a never-to-happen-again experience in our personal life span.  Perhaps it is about being physically present for an experience that our brain determines is special beyond any mechanized memorialization of the experience.  It's why so many of us found our way to Washington, D.C. to experience President Obama's inauguration midst millions of people, though it was difficult to see and to hear.  We were there.  Together.  And that was more important personally than seeing and hearing it on television.

It's the same way with conversation.  It's why I believe that face to face conversation is the new luxury.  Being there, feeling each others' presence, is what makes the experience important.  

 
It's why it was important for President Obama to be there this past week among the survivor families of the West Virginia coal miners who lost their lives on the job, inside that mine.  It was face to face conversation at its most poignant, its most important.

When you next get an invitation to join someone for a milestone in their lives, to celebrate a birthday or a graduation, or to eulogize a family member of friend, make every effort to be there.  Physically.  In the same place. 

And as for your work, you'll no doubt find that working from home may have its advantages, but there is nothing quite like the shared camaraderie, the brainstorming, the innovation that comes from being in the midst of other people who care about getting the job done and find that joining forces can make things happen better and faster than doing them alone.

Maybe you should turn on some music while you're at it.  Even if it's playing in the background.