The ageless appeal of live music

This summer has seen an amazing phenomenon come into the public consciousness again with a vengeance - live music. 

First there were queues for days at locations across Britain as Taylor Swift came to town with her Eras tour, set to bring in a billion pounds to the UK alone. Taylor’s unique brand of singer, songwriter and storytelling has almost universal appeal it seems. By the time this tour finishes in November, she will have played 146 dates across five continents. The Eras tour looks likely to be the highest grossing tour of all time and was expected to the big pop-culture news of this year.   

Now we have the return of the Gallagher brothers, who have promised to reunite for performances next year. Musical magazine NME had the headline ‘Oasis fans react to “biblical” reunion tour news’! You wouldn’t think the resolving of brotherly disagreement would be such a huge draw – after all, the Bible has more than its fair share - but Liam and Noel have caused almost more headlines with the news of their reunion than they generated with their soap-opera-esque perpetual disagreements in their heyday. They haven’t performed together since 2009 but on 27 August the world was told 'The guns have fallen silent. The stars have aligned. The great wait is over. Come see. It will not be televised.'  This will be live-only, they promise, and from the fan furore clearly millions want to be part of ‘Live 25’. 

What is it about live music that affects us so much?

Researchers at the University of Zurich have discovered that live music consistently led to increased activity in the listeners left amygdala, the part of the brain linked to emotions. Their findings show that live music intensifies our emotional response, they think due to it’s free-flowing, dynamic nature.

In a world where we can all pick to listen to what we want, when we want, at the push of a button or even using our voice, we can often find ourselves listening to music in isolation.  And the joy of being able to sing worship in your kitchen while you wash up accompanied not just a cappella is not to be underestimated (especially not if you have a singing voice as poor as mine!)

But we were created to worship together.  Is it any wonder fans jostle either in person or online to be able to share a communal concert that will make them feel like they are sharing something special together? They want to joyfully share emotional experiences (especially those tinged with nostalgia perhaps) with thousands of others, in a world where many feel increasingly isolated? 

If there is something in each of us longing for live music, how wonderful that we are called to ‘sing to God, sing praises for Him, and proclaim His wonderful deeds’. This morning I joined a small service led by a tentative keyboard and flute duo, next Sunday I expect to experience multiple choirs and an organ for a celebration service. I want to remind myself that both of these, and everything in between, is a privilege to worship with - to be able to add my voice to.

Reflecting on the queues for Taylor Swift and Oasis, I am making a mental note to thank God more often for those who make our live music in church happen – from musicians to sound technicians. They use their time and talents to enable God’s gift of live music to be a vital part of our gathering to worship, to make music together with all our souls - the ultimate live music experience. And we don’t even have to queue, or wrestle with Ticketmaster. That itself seems worthy of a song of gratitude!