Why Humans are Obsessed with Stadium Concerts

August 15, 2025 marks the 60th anniversary of a pivotal moment in live music history: The Beatles’ infamous performance at Shea Stadium. What began as an unprecedented attempt to accommodate the Fab Four’s overwhelming popularity has evolved into a touchstone of pop culture—the modern stadium tour. Today’s stadium concerts are more than just supersized live shows; they have become cultural phenomena and socio-economic markers. Perhaps most intriguingly—at least to me—they are also neuroscientific experiments in mass synchronization.