> Music, because of the visceral reactions it elicits, tends to be best experienced in a live setting. The animation and general atmosphere of the crowd brings

> Music, because of the visceral reactions it elicits, tends to be best experienced in a live setting. The animation and general atmosphere of the crowd brings a lot to the emotional table that is lost elsewhere, including home listening rooms. Definitely a generalization, as you caveated. With few exceptions, my appreciation for musical depth is substantially lessened in a live setting. One such exception is a venue with theater seating and an observant audience. The crowd sits and absorbs. I'm not taking chamber orchestra here, either. I mean Will Oldham or Bill Callahan or X-refined-"indie" band. Another is certain kinds of music played live in small bars where everyone is rip roaringly drunk and ecstatic but not focused on the performers, but engaged with the elevated social tenor, which includes dancing, senseless mixing, mingling and disregard for decorum. Random bluegrass works well for this. But largely (read: basically always), I need to consume music in either solitude or in extremely intimate, restricted, established, and empathetic company. Otherwise I can't concentrate on my emotional responses or develop complex relationships with the work! I don't mean that this is Appolonian for me. The contrary is true: it's Dionysian, but that's the kind of thing I can't get when surrounded, socially navigating, self-conscious and worried about the perception of others. Too much, not enough, as they say. My focus is a fragile thing, easily dismantled. (I envy the robust among you!) Anyways, I'm just digressing here, not disagreeing, esp. as you allowed for the fact that you are generalizing a bit. My experience differs vis-à-vis musical appreciation. Certain friends of mine have expressed similar feelings. But is it surprising that relationships to art will be as varied as people and art objects themselves? My guess is that there is at least a baker's dozen worth of people out there who prefer listening to music through barriers we can't understand, and still as many whose appreciation for music and voice and song comes from not hearing it at all.