By Alyssa Flick
The lights are bright. You and friends are surrounded by others with the same enthusiasm for rock music. When the music begins to pulsate in the room the entire consciousness of the crowd becomes homogeneous through this single interest and common understanding in the music.

A rock concert’s music is, in a sense, a form of mind control and it provides a stimulus for a great self-release. You witness directly how music brings together and rules the masses. The congregation forms solely to express its love for the band and be swayed by the music in whatever manner—wild or relaxed.

The music is loud and you get to see the band perform firsthand. Although, not every band’s music is great live, there are many other factors making a concert unique and enjoyable.

“First concert I went to was being played by Flyleaf, Three Days Grace, and Breaking Bad. Three Days Grace was the best as well as the headliner. The concert was in Indiana… Fort Wayne. I went with family, which was my sister, three years ago,” says Brooke Heinze, a Bluffton High School student.

The music of a rock band heard from CD’s can convey a band’s identity—an identity, which doesn’t truly represent the rock group’s originally intended vogue or message.

When the band performs live its musical presentation is uncensored by sponsors or venue hosts. In that setting a listener can expect to experience the band’s true personality. The conversations between the crowd and the band are moments only worthy and meaningful to the attendees of the concert.

The reception and response of the crowd and how powerfully the performance provokes it can’t be reiterated or sold by commercial methods. You must be at the concert to experience it.

“The music at a concert is more authentic. You get way more from the music than you can listen to it from a CD. A person at a concert can enjoy the music on a different level, altogether,” says Kevin King, a concert-goer and Bluffton High School Spanish teacher.

What is this live rock music that can cause such sensational effects? The rock genre is typically defined as loud and fast music with a four, four beat tempo, composed by the sounds of drums, guitar, voice, and base guitar. Musically, the drums, as well as the base guitar, are the instruments of the band that maintain the beat and rhythm throughout songs.

The guitar gives the music a flare and style and the voice gives the music a verbal message. The worded message’s emotion, connotation and hidden meaning parallel and agree with the feeling the music contributes.

A live rock concert might include from two bands to as many as five in a single concert. A rock concert can be as huge as a daylong festival or as short as a single night. Concerts have one thing in common: a “headliner.”

A headliner is a band that the show will end with and will be the group of performers with the most commercialized attention enabling sponsors to sell tickets.

Alyssa Flick is a Bluffton High School student enrolled in a Bluffton University Communications class as a post-secondary student.