Live music imaginaries in the reception of online popular music concerts
Live music imaginaries in the reception of online popular music concerts
This article critically interrogates a range of themes in writing about online popular music performances. It uncovers dominant conventional narratives, experiences, and understandings of online concerts, captured under the term ‘live music imaginaries’. Recent scholarship, journalism, and other commentary typically emphasise the limitations of online music events compared to in-person performances. Most pressingly, online concerts are pervasively viewed as merely a temporary lifeline for live music during the COVID-19 pandemic. They need not be. Commentators also frame technology as determining online performance practices, based on speculation about some inevitably virtual future of entertainment. Yet the history and variety of online concerts as a media form and cultural practice are under-considered. By highlighting and evaluating the historically and culturally situated live music imaginaries that shape the experience of online concerts, this article sets the stage for a theoretical reframing of the value of online music events.
Concert experiences, fandom, live music studies, livestreaming, music performance, online music cultures, virtual concerts
Gamble, Steven
5c087d9b-e9b4-4a31-ae97-b25da3defb90
Gamble, Steven
5c087d9b-e9b4-4a31-ae97-b25da3defb90
Gamble, Steven
(2026)
Live music imaginaries in the reception of online popular music concerts.
New Media & Society.
(doi:10.1177/14614448261424887).
Abstract
This article critically interrogates a range of themes in writing about online popular music performances. It uncovers dominant conventional narratives, experiences, and understandings of online concerts, captured under the term ‘live music imaginaries’. Recent scholarship, journalism, and other commentary typically emphasise the limitations of online music events compared to in-person performances. Most pressingly, online concerts are pervasively viewed as merely a temporary lifeline for live music during the COVID-19 pandemic. They need not be. Commentators also frame technology as determining online performance practices, based on speculation about some inevitably virtual future of entertainment. Yet the history and variety of online concerts as a media form and cultural practice are under-considered. By highlighting and evaluating the historically and culturally situated live music imaginaries that shape the experience of online concerts, this article sets the stage for a theoretical reframing of the value of online music events.
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Accepted/In Press date: 2 February 2026
e-pub ahead of print date: 23 February 2026
Keywords:
Concert experiences, fandom, live music studies, livestreaming, music performance, online music cultures, virtual concerts
Identifiers
Local EPrints ID: 510433
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/510433
ISSN: 1461-4448
PURE UUID: c70d2413-a507-4499-9855-7b0cf19060e3
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Date deposited: 31 Mar 2026 16:41
Last modified: 01 Apr 2026 02:13
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Author:
Steven Gamble
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