Everyone loves music, and whatever genre you prefer, there is no doubt that it is always better live. Recorded music is good, however after all the editing, sound machines, and radio propaganda, it gets to be overproduced, overplayed, and loses its natural, raw emotion. Even if you don't know the artist you are listening to live, there is always so much more that is communicated via live music.
1. Raw Sounds
Music from the recording studio undergoes such excessive editing, before it is released to the public, that by the time you actually hear it, it is drastically different than the first cut of the track that the artist created in the first place. When you hear the track live, every note that is slightly off pitch or played wrong, can be heard. Some argue that this is not as pleasant to listen to, but in my opinion, the music is real and is something that can be easily differentiated when comparing it to the fake sounds created by a computer on a recorded track.
2. Emotion
One of the best parts about live performances is getting to experience the artist's emotion. You can see their facial expressions, hear their voices change when they sing a particular lyric, and listen to their stories and introductions of what the song means to them. All of this is lost when you do not get to hear the song live. The lyrics and the music of recorded tracks still convey the story, but often times it loses its emotional subtext that comes with a live performance.
3. Hearing new music
A lot of times when you go to see a live preformance, you have a couple of songs you know and enjoy from the artist, but you have not heard the whole album. A live performance allows the artists to play a setlist of songs that include the tracks that get a lot of airplay, but also allows them to play the songs that were not deemed acceptable as a single. They get to share music with their fans that is not overplayed on the radio, and most often these tracks are more personal, because they are not as produced for a particular audience or setting. When you go to an artist's concert, these songs get to be heard completely the way the artist intended them, and you may have a new favorite song at the end of the night.
Music is a great way to communicate emotion, and live music, is the best way to hear the raw, natural qualities of sound that are lost in highly produced studio recordings.
