Science & technology | Your brain on music

Why recorded music will never feel as good as the real thing

The answer, according to neuroscience

Elton John performing on piano in Central Park, New York.
He’s still standingPhotograph: Alamy

In a world of music streaming services, access to almost any song is just a few clicks away. Yet, the live gig lives on. People still fill sweaty basements, muddy fields and gilded concert halls to hear their favourite musicians play. And now neuroscientists might know why: live music engages the brain’s emotion centres more than its recorded counterpart.

This article appeared in the Science & technology section of the print edition under the headline “Nothing better than the real thing”

From the March 2nd 2024 edition

Discover stories from this section and more in the list of contents

Explore the edition

Discover more

Legal Amazon preservation area borders the field for soybean planting.

Deforestation is costing Brazilian farmers millions

Without trees to circulate moisture, the land is getting hotter and drier

Robot slicing a cucumber at Toyota Research Institute.

Robots can learn new actions faster thanks to AI techniques

They could soon show their moves in settings from car factories to care homes



Scientific publishers are producing more papers than ever

Concerns about some of their business models are building

The two types of human laugh

One is caused by tickling; the other by everything else

Scientists are building a catalogue of every type of cell in our bodies

It has thus far shed light on everything from organ formation to the causes of inflammation