Opinion | The healing powers of Taylor Swift, Drake and Beyonc

I went to my first concert at 9 years old. It was the mid-1980s, and rap was entering the mainstream. Grocery stores sold records, and, while I was shopping with my mother, an album cover caught my eye. Three big dudes hovered over a pizza while holding a burger, soda and ice cream. A miniature version of the guys — clad in black-and-white prison uniforms straight out of a “Three Stooges” skit — stood in the pizza box sharing a slice. Emblazoned across the top was the group’s name: Fat Boys.

The Fat Boys concert was held in a hotel ballroom. My best friend invited me to go with him and his adult cousins. I begged my parents for permission, and though they didn’t know much about the music, they had a feeling that a rap concert was probably not the place for a fourth-grader. But when I showed them the ridiculously comedic cover art and introduced them to the group’s signature beatboxing, they gave in. They must’ve thought my attempts to mimic the human percussion — at the dinner table, during shootarounds with friends, at church (until my mother gave me The Look) — sounded so silly that this group must be for kids. That concert is a memory I’ll always treasure.

Countless children are making their own first-concert memories this summer. On social media, I’ve seen the light come on in the eyes of kids and teens at Beyoncé, Taylor Swift and Drake concerts, among others. For many, the coronavirus pandemic delayed the experience of sharing time and space with thousands of people who love the same songs. And aside from how technologically advanced a major concert is now, I’m most struck by the diversity of the crowds. Maybe there is some social and civic magic to be found in our return to shared, in-person experiences.

Social scientists have identified four themes that help explain the attraction of concerts and the significance of attendance. The most prominent is the experience, followed by the engagement, the novelty and, lastly, the practical reasons. That makes sense to me. Summer 2023 is rich with engaging and novel experiences. One of the features of Drake’s tour is a performance of some of his older songs with a hologram of his younger self. Audiences look on in awe as they rap and sing along to music from a decade ago. At Swift’s stadium concerts, middle-schoolers trade friendship bracelets with fans twice their age, all euphoric to be glimpsing — and singing with — their idol in the company of tens of thousands of new besties. And when Blue Ivy, Beyoncé’s daughter, appears onstage to dance with her mom, little girls explode with joy, doing the same choreographed moves from their seats.

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Engagement matters. Ours is a society that requires frequent positive community participation if it’s to be resilient against the forces pulling us apart. Scholars have explored the impact of attending concerts, and they’ve found such benefits as an increased sense of belonging and improved well-being. Concert audiences “experienced feelings of togetherness,” researchers report. Sharing a love for something facilitates a path to connection.

At the same time, concert attendance serves as a public affirmation of one’s sense of self. Music can be “a means to help formulate identities and meet certain emotional needs” — critical especially to the development of young people. At a stage of life in which everyone is seeking to fit in somewhere, shared music is a crew, a family, a nation. At concerts, individually meaningful moments converge into collective joy. People — especially young people — bond over creative expression and the sheer excitement of being alive together.

Back in that hotel ballroom, the Fat Boys were running extremely late. The crowd grew antsy. When “Five Minutes of Funk” blared through the speakers to distract us, my friend’s cousins hoisted us on their shoulders. I cannot describe the joy. The whole room was dancing. Everyone was dressed like the people we saw in magazines and videos. It was a vibe, with kindred spirits. The place was a frenzy when the group finally arrived, and its trademark sounds thumped in our chests. I was too young to articulate what my soul needed. I could only feel it: the cultural affirmation from being right in the thick of it. Connected.

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Some people fear that technology, instead of enhancing this profound experience, will replace it. I think the covid shutdown taught us how insufficient that would be. The popular Verzuz concert series — streamed live on Instagram at the height of the pandemic — was a moment for the culture, but it was nothing compared with the particular alchemy of an in-person concert. A recent study found that those who’ve watched virtual concerts treasure the individual experience; social engagement was least important for them. Technology can make convenience more attractive than connection.

The Fat Boys bounced after about three songs. I never learned why they left so abruptly. As we exited, people were saying the group was forced to vacate the stage because the room had exceeded maximum occupancy. Others, seeking a more sensational story to tell, suggested fights had broken out. Whatever it was, we had waited for hours to enjoy a 15-minute performance — yet I rode home on Cloud 9. There was something about being in that room, with that crowd, that made this little suburban kid from the other side of town feel that I belonged — that there was a place for me beyond my own world.

We are a nation with plenty of places to convene and commune but with a dwindling interest in doing so with people who are different from us. The folks who traffic in stoking conflict intentionally target the places where we gather across our differences: concerts, the movies, sports. The pandemic separated us out of necessity. Those days are over now, and legions are turning out to share powerful experiences this summer. The crowds teeming with excitement remind us — and teach a new generation — that constructive shared experiences are necessary for a strong and cohesive society.

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