Summer concerts have returned, as many have longed for since the pandemic struck. What is it that attracts audiences to the sound of vocal harmonies, a concert pianist, or a saxophone hitting a high note — especially live? Andy McGraw, associate professor of music, explains the key.

“Music enhances mood through stimulating the production of dopamine in the brain,” McGraw said. “We like music because it makes us feel good.”

The moment a bow strokes across the strings of a violin or a singer croons into the microphone is more intense in person than on a recording, McGraw said.

“It’s tied to our experience of music as a kind of ethics,” he said. “In the case of the experience of live music, the direct social exchange is between performers and their audiences. It’s a face-to-face interaction.”

Humans crave that interaction, McGraw said, which became a widespread sentiment during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Collective musical interaction, listening and playing live music, feels more intense than unstructured hanging out with friends or solitary musical experiences, like playing solo or solitary listening,” he said. “Complex forms of coordination are calisthenics for other forms of complex, evolutionarily advantageous group behaviors such as hunting and childrearing.”

Without that human interaction, music becomes less of a pleasure, and the experience is more indirect, he said.

“When listening to recordings, we are often unaware if our exchange involves the performer at all,” McGraw said. “Music makes us feel good because its proper domain — the domain in which and for which it evolved — is social cooperation. Social cooperation feels good because having friends and allies has been key to reproductive success throughout the course of human evolution.”