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Is going to live gigs good for your wellbeing?

Author: Dr Dougal Sutherland,
Publish Date: Sat, 30 May 2026, 12:20pm

There are lots of things we know are good for our wellbeing, like eating properly, getting enough sleep, and doing exercise. But many of these are, let’s face it, pretty boring some of the time and we might not feel very motivated to do them. But what if doing things for your wellbeing was actually fun? New research has looked at the impact listening to live music can have on us.

Music itself has some very positive aspects to it such as changing our mood and helping us feel connections with other people who like the same music or whom we’re playing music with. It seems going to a live music gig can have an even deeper impact on us via a phenomenon called “collective effervescence”.

Collective effervescence is defined as having a strong sense of connection to other people present, feelings of elation, and that something special or even sacred is occurring – by its very definition it’s only something you can get when you are experiencing something jointly with other people.

You can get this with non-music events too – for example going to a wedding or for some people, attending a religious service. Collective effervescence seems to help reduce loneliness and improve people’s mood – basically you feel better and more connected with other people.

New research found people rated group events involving live music as more emotionally intense and unifying than group events that didn’t involve music, and that the stronger a sense of emotional connection with others the more enjoyable people found the gig. This shared emotional high was linked not only to greater enjoyment and meaning during the event, but also to significantly greater happiness up to a week later.

Need to be cautious about the results as it involved people looking back on what they remember happening, but it does seem that the appeal of gigs may lie in more than just performance alone.

I’ve had lots of experiences of this myself but the best example I can remember of this is when our daughter went to the Taylor Swift concert in Sydney a couple of years ago – we went out to the stadium with her and the sense of a collective buzz amongst people on the train going out there and even just milling around was almost palpable.

TayTay won’t be everyone’s cup of tea, but whatever your taste in music is why not get out there and seem some live music and enhance your own wellbeing in a way that’s fun and enjoyable, especially as it’s just coming to the end of New Zealand Music month!

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