Part of the appeal of live music is that it enforces a fully immersed state of concentrated listening through the loudness and enveloping nature of the sound, but also because if you’ve paid through the nose for an experience you’re probably going to make an effort to stay in the moment rather than distract yourself. You can’t press pause, rewind or save it for later. Live music not only insists on, it imposes undivided attention and uninterrupted listening. To today’s option-overloaded music fan, that kind of subjugation feels like liberation.

Source: Simon Reynolds, Retromania (2011)