Live Performances

 When there isn't a recorder yet, electronic enhancers, etc. human beings need to be a virtuoso in terms of playing music, instruments, and singing songs, from start to finish, again and again, memorized or notated. 

During the 18th century, they even developed the "modern" opera house with superior acoustics than the proscenium that allowed Mozart to compose more complex, intimate music because he knew the "better" indoor acoustics would allow the audience to hear the fine details of the instruments.(Gemini 3 Fast)

Today a DAW expert can compose a song from start to finish at the comfort of their own room without knowing how to play any instrument, or even sing, or even read notation, or explain musical theories. Of course using a DAW is another kind of drudgery before even one can hear a melodious tone and good rhythm. I know first hand from being a Cool Edit Pro, etc. user way back in 2000. Just don't call me jurassic.

Today a one time brilliant performance can be recorded using a good camera and a good mic, uploaded to YouTube, and watched by millions repeatedly all over the world, not just in one place.

Today a faint idea of a non-musician can be prompted to an AI music generator, which produces studio finished song in seconds.

What's still the use of live performances?

Let's take the case of the song If You Leave Me Now by Chicago. Although it's a recorded live stage performance, I want you to compare it to its master record. Also there is a live studio and stage performance of it by Leonid & Friends.

What is a live performance? It's a performance from start to finish. As a stage actor/singer myself, we are trained to continue the performance even if we committed mistakes, and just have to make an ad-lib or improvise if need be. That's why mastery of one's role is important that's made possible by so many repeated practices. This is what's also being pointed by studio engineers as the main reason why old records sounds better than contemporary ones that are already mostly heavily edited.

I want you to imagine saying this sentence with feelings: You're nothing but a second rate, trying hard copycat!

Now imagine we have to edit your last word "copycat" several takes before you get the feeling the director wants projected. That's not live anymore. In real life, you don't stop at telling your enemy that full sentence.

You need lots of practice to produce that brilliant one take on the day of the performance on stage or on studio without pause or retake anymore.

It's like proposing to your girlfriend the line you've practiced and memorized. But the moment of saying it becomes a spontaneous outburst of the heart. Nothing comes close to such.

Do you think artists deserve the awards given them, all judges being impartial? We are giving such honor for their hard work at internalizing a life not of their own and projecting such to an audience like it's a spontaneous real event, bringing to life an event that we can only imagine while reading a novel.

So if Wildflower sang by Billie Eilish is her own real story, do you think we will hear it more deeply? I mean I already want to feel sorry for her and give her a hug.

Psychologically, the nonverbals are a part of a live performance as well which isn't present from an audio-only experience. 

MTV and onwards are also a different kind of category. However, due to the budding world of artificial video we may refer to as AV, it becomes a harder thing to tackle. I mean we can identify a cartoon show from a real human drama. But when AV becomes indistinguishable from real human video or HV, we don't know the experience yet anymore. Cartoon TV shows have entertained and inspired me as a child, so I know what it is. There is no question about the feeling and the meaning it triggers. Could it be giving us a clue that AV and AM will just be the same, and that we only need some time to getting used to it?

We don't have any issue just replaying an NBA finals we missed due to a hectic schedule. We are now used to it. We don't have any problem capturing the feeling and the meaning of a replayed live Coachella concert as well. I think it ends our inquiry in that regard. There is no problem with AM and AV as well. Or is there any that still needs further clarification?