ABSTRACT
This chapter deals with contrary to both the trends of thought "the empirical-psychological and the neo-Hegelian" which musical listening is essentially individualistic. Hanslick has a purist, individualistic and in a sense formalist view of musical experience. The idea of joint activity also has application to the language one can use to talk about music, for speaking and understanding words of any sort is itself something to do. Theodor Adorno assumes that musical experience needs a social or political analysis. It is not merely the weak thesis that musical experience takes place in a social context and has social causes and effects. The standard model of aesthetic experience and appreciation that is in play in contemporary analytic aesthetics is individualistic. There are two phenomena which seem to invite a joint listening account they are music and dance. Dancing to music lies on a continuum with gesturing to music: both reveal musical experience and understanding.
