We belong together: Collective Effervescence, Frisson, and Live Music by Sergio De Arriba Lopez

If you’ve ever been to a concert, festival, or even a large gathering like a football game or the big countdown on New Year’s Eve, you’ve likely experienced the intense feeling of being connected to other people, even complete strangers, to the point that it sends shivers down your spine. A rush that lingers for days afterwards, even in a melancholic way that leaves you wishing you could experience it again and again. It is something much deeper and stronger than just shared emotion or pride over something. This phenomenon is called collective effervescence, coined by sociologist Emile Durkheim, and refers to the shared sense of energy and emotional connection that people feel when they gather in a group for a common purpose. It is an experience that is not only present in big gatherings but also serves as a psychological basis of world religions, patriotic values, political hegemony, and even extremist propaganda. Let’s focus on the good parts of this phenomenon, though. 

This summer, after Spain won the World Cup, seeing the ecstatic streets of Madrid explode with jubilations, I felt more than ever this feeling of unity with people I’d never spoken to. Reflecting on that, I recognized where else I’ve repeatedly felt this feeling, which has almost become my drug of choice: live music. But why does being around 50,000 strangers screaming the same lyrics feel so profound? And why do we actively seek out this feeling? 

Last week, I went to see Daniel Caesar, a critically acclaimed singer-songwriter known for powerful R&B and soul ballads, in Amsterdam. With just a gospel choir, a couple instruments, and Caesar’s angelic voice, he was able to fully entrance the entire crowd of about 17,000 people. Everyone singing along to his most profound lyrics and the resulting collective emotions sparked curiosity in me. The way thousands of people can come together and deeply relate to one person’s art is a beautiful thing to observe and be a part of. And, as I said, this is not limited to experiencing live music in a large crowd. What’s necessary to channel such a feeling is only a common purpose, a shared passion, and a physical togetherness that makes an “I” become a “we”. 

There’s truly a physical experience to this that I’ve always been intrigued by, which has always felt like a sort of sixth sense to me. For instance, getting full body chills at the marvel of a beautiful ballad, a strange pleasure that I often experience whether in my headphones or at a concert. There’s actually a term for this: frisson, defined as the sudden experience of chills or goosebumps in response to an emotional stimulus. This especially occurs with music, because of things like a song getting louder, dramatic chord changes, or just the personal meaning we give to profound lyrics from our favorite artists. Combining this with collective effervescence is the reason why live music can be so powerful; the music itself evokes an individual sensation, while a crowd transforms that individual experience into a collective one. In my opinion, this is one of the most sublime feelings one can experience. 

Perhaps what makes this experience so wonderful is beyond the intensity of the music or the physical reaction it produces. Perhaps what causes that lasting feeling is the idea of living such an event as a community, where one essentially becomes deindividualized. We scream together, we sing together, we move together, and we simply belong together, standing next to thousands of strangers who for a moment, you share something deeply personal with. For me, this feeling often remains for days after, when the lights turn back on and everyone goes back to their normal lives. That’s the result of collective effervescence. And, perhaps that is the essence of what we crave as humans. 

Heading into autumn, with the streets of this city dressed in orange and amber, the air getting frostier, and people beginning to retract into isolation, my advice is to step out and continue living experiences of collective emotion. Humans are made to connect, and we all seek that sense of belonging and community that can draw you to people you’ve never seen before. Personally, music is the pathway to unlocking this emotion, but it can be found in so many places where people come together with a shared passion. So go to that event, talk to strangers, and let yourself get lost in the crowd, because one of the most beautiful things about humans as individuals is the capacity for emotional connection with other individuals, and the feeling of simply belonging together, even for just a moment.