Brainwaves and soundwaves

Music can be a powerful emotional driver, but a recent study wanted to go a step further and prove the positive impact of live music on our brains.

BRAINWAVES-image

Personalised playlists, access to millions of tracks at the touch of a button and album launches announced on Instagram. Music has changed immeasurably in recent years, but one thing that hasn’t disappeared is our love of a good concert. Live music is flourishing; a 2017 study from professional services firm PwC suggests live music will be worth $29bn by 2021.

Yet how can the concert experience be quantified when survey research relies on self-reported behaviour and feelings? A recent experiment by entertainment company Live Nation and creative technology firm TBD Labs sought to understand what is so compelling about live music, using biometrics to measure fans’ reactions and brainwaves during a concert.

Live Nation had already conducted qualitative research in the US and a global survey in 11 countries, and found there was an appetite for an antidote to information overload created by technology. Amanda Fraga, vice-president of strategy and insights for media and sponsorships at Live Nation, calls the trend ‘sensation deprivation’. 

“Everyone we spoke to talked about the influx of information and technology chipping away at people’s minds and time,” she says. “They were thinking about how they can recalibrate their lives for more meaningful connections, and live music is obviously a catalyst for that.”

Referencing Daniel Levitin’s book, This Is Your Brain On Music, and music’s ability to boost social connection, Fraga adds: “Live music releases oxytocin, a bonding hormone; we’re bonding with the people around us, even though they’re strangers.”

This hypothesis – that live music would lead to higher emotional intensity and boost social bonding – was the starting point for the study, which wanted to prove the value of live music as a channel for brands. 

“Live music is a social-bonding experience, an emotionally intense experience – consumers say it, but there’s no way to quantify it and compare it to other media channels,” says Sam Joseph, founder and director of TBD Labs, which proposed the use of biometrics – specifically electroencephalography (EEG) wearables and galvanic skin response (GSR) – to measure fans’ brain activity and physiological responses.

The setting for the research was a St. Vincent concert in Charlotte, North Carolina, where fans who had already bought tickets were recruited to take part. Eighteen participants were fitted with a Muse headband for the EEG study, to analyse brain activity during the concert, while another 15 wore the headbands to track their movement using its accelerometer. Five participants from the movement study also took part in a GSR study.

Baseline measure

The study measuring brain activity was conducted simultaneously, with each participant undergoing four separate measures lasting 10 minutes – one of which was a baseline measurement taken before the concert. This was partly because they had to sit still, not move their heads and avoid clenching their teeth, which could add ‘noise’ to the data. Additionally, participants had to refrain from drinking alcohol, and left-handed people couldn’t take part, because their brainwave data would differ from that of right-handed participants.

By studying music fans in as close to a natural environment as possible – with the caveat that participants had to remain still – the research attempted to capture the reality of how music is experienced, insofar as technology allows. While biometrics have been widely used across various sectors to test reactions to stimuli, they have rarely, if ever, been employed outside of a laboratory. But the recent study’s real-world setting was an advantage for Mona Lisa Chanda, neuroscientist and co-author – with Levitin – of The Neurochemistry of Music, who oversaw the research. It allowed large amounts of data to be collected quickly, from multiple participants. “We were able to make the outside world our laboratory,” says Chanda. 

Of course, the environment also brought some uncharted challenges for the researchers: using Bluetooth for data collection (the headbands were paired to smartphones) opened up the possibility of interference from multiple devices and the stage, resulting in the potential for noisier data than that collected from a conventional environment. 

Ahead of analysis, Chanda carried out the time-consuming, but necessary, task of pre-processing the raw signal to make sure the signals being interpreted were from the brain – filtering out unwanted noise, such as muscle movements or electrical artefacts. She then quantified the value of the theta, alpha, beta and gamma brain rhythms within the prefrontal cortex – the part of the brain associated with attention, memory, and developing and pursuing goals. 

“The alpha rhythm is the most predominant oscillatory activity in the human brain, and numerous neuromarketing studies have reported changes in alpha power values during the viewing of TV shows, film clips or other media,” says Chanda. “Consistent with this, I discovered that the alpha rhythm showed the greatest sensitivity to the effects of live music in our study.” 

Emotional intensity

Alpha power actually decreased for 90% of participants during the performance, compared to the pre-concert baseline. This may seem counterintuitive, but – according to Chanda – it suggests the participants experienced high levels of attention and engagement during the concert. “A decrease in alpha power is associated with an increase in attention to one’s surroundings and higher levels of information processing,” she explains.

The GSR study also identified a 53% increase in emotional intensity and the movement study indicated an increase in synchronised movement, suggesting higher levels of social bonding.

Alongside the live study, TBD Labs conducted pre- and post-concert research with participants, correlating people’s self-identified responses with their physiological response data. Those who had displayed stronger movement synchronisation with others during the performance also reported greater feelings of connection, according to Chanda. 

People who had a greater shift in alpha power also showed more receptivity to brands, and experienced positive mood increases, which has implications for commercial messaging, according to TBD Labs’ Joseph. “Brands that want to activate [at live music events] should be doing activations that seamlessly integrate and help people enjoy the experience, and get lost in it, even more, or they should do something that helps people connect with others and brings social bonding to life.” 

This article was first published in Issue 23 of Impact.

We hope you enjoyed this article.
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