ABSTRACT
Live music events are the setting for the greatest number of peak music experiences reported by research participants. This reflects the widespread valourisation of the live setting in popular music culture, as acknowledged in a range of scholarly work and commercialised in today’s ‘experience economy’. Analysis of these experiences reveals what people value most in the live context and provides compelling insight into what marks out live music as special. Common factors include the role of venues, sound, physicality, performance, presence and collective affect, each of which involves expectations that differ between particular music cultures. Together these elements create a space for the exploration and celebration of individual and collective identity, including uncommon performances of self and belonging. By enabling extraordinary feelings and behaviour, live music creates especially affecting, memorable and meaningful experiences, which help to account for its special status. As peaks among peaks, these live music experiences illuminate the social functions and appeal of popular music more generally.
