Lessons from a music festival on emotional intelligence

I spent this weekend attending music gigs of all kinds. I attended the Park Life festival in Manchester, and then I attended a classical piano recital by Eric Lu.

Music or otherwise, any form of art has profound lessons of emotional intelligence to teach. Here are some of mine from this weekend:

1. People are drawn to the music, but they are drawn more so to the artist.
2. We resonate with the music corresponding to our “emotional home.”
3. Listening to music together enhances the music itself.

People are drawn to the music, but they are drawn more so to the artist.

I spoke with many people during the festival. I asked them what they were looking forward to. Very few people described a song, or a genre, or style. Most people were looking forward to specific artists. They didn’t care about what they played or sang, they just wanted to see the artist.

People are drawn to people. Tim Cook has more followers than the long-established Apple. Nike is nothing without Michael Jordan and Cristiano Ronaldo endorsing it. The power of a personal brand is second to none.

A good book to read if you are interested in personal branding is Key Person of Influence.

We resonate with the music corresponding to our “emotional home.”

You might have seen this model of emotions created by David Hawkins (I think). Every piece of art has an emotional center, and so does our mind. Call it our emotional home. To follow this model, I’d say most people’s minds reside near fear/desire with pockets of reason and acceptance.

I saw it at the festival where music like rap with strong lyrics got a lot of crowds, but the classical music got at least 100 times less.

Ultimately, it’s not a good or bad thing. Fear/anger are not “bad” emotions. They are just reflective of where we are at.

Listening to music together enhances the music itself.

I had this nice moment where I started listening to Little Simz from the end of the crowd. But my friend and I liked her personality and music, and we decided to enjoy the music from a little closer.

As we moved through the mobs of crowds and placed ourselves with many more people, we noticed that we were enjoying the music more. The song was the same, the artist was the same, and the lighting/stage was the same. What changed was we plugged into other people’s emotional state around us. And that shared happiness was contagious.

I hope you had a good weekend. Let me know what you think about the relationship between music and emotions.