Sacred Moments and Audience Experience at Rock Concerts

Sacred moments are characterised by the five qualities of boundlessness, deepinterconnectedness, transcendence, ultimacy, and spiritual emotions, experienced at one momentin time (Pargament et al., 2014). These moments have been associated with improvements towell-being in numerous ways. Benefits to well-being as a result of attending concerts have alsobeen well documented, as concerts have become increasingly popular in recent years. The goalof the present study was to investigate how sacred moments manifest during rock concerts, andthe extent to which sacred moments contribute to the improvements in well-being experiencedfrom concert attendances. Thus, the present study involved a questionnaire to examine theprevalence of experiencing sacred moment qualities at rock concerts (N = 87). Semi-structuredinterviews were also used to explore the lived experience of these qualities, along with theelements that made the concert impactful (n = 3). The results of the questionnaire revealed thatparticipants were likely to experience sacred moment qualities during at least one or few concertsthey have attended. Religious belief, age, gender, and frequency of rock concert attendancegenerally did not have an effect on the frequency of experiencing sacred moment qualities atconcerts, except for ultimacy, which had a slight negative correlation with age only.Interpretative phenomenological analysis on the in-depth interview data uncovered two groupexperiential themes: “The Singular and Unique Experience of Live Music,” with LiterallySingular, and Figuratively Singular; Unique and Extraordinary as subthemes, and “Live Musicis a Sensory and Physical Experience,” with Physicality and Moshing, The Visual Experience,The Auditory Experience, and Physical Realness as subthemes. Notably, every sacred momentquality experienced at concerts was described by the participants as exceedingly enjoyable andresulted in improved well-being, though the longevity of these effects had limited evidence. Thehypothesis that sacred moment experiences could be a mechanism through which live musicexperiences improve people’s well-being was supported by the findings. Limitations andimplications for future research are discussed.