Last weekend, Chicago’s Union Park played host to Pitchfork Music Festival, a three-day concert curated by the venerable indie music publication that featured over 45 bands. Lady Gaga was totally there too for five seconds, but did not perform because she was there to watch music and not to appease the crowd, who in turn angrily demanded that she contribute in some way because you don’t just make surprise appearances at #P4k if you’re Lady Gaga and not follow through in some way like stage-diving during the AraabMuzik set or something.
Anyway, eMusic also made an appearance at the festival, though unlike Lady Gaga’s, Twitter wasn’t freaking out about it and I didn’t Instagram a photo of it. Setting up a giant pod near the dugout of one of Union Park’s fabulous softball fields, eMusic and Mother NY continued their digital “eMusic Investigates” campaign, in which the online music subscription service measures the impact that indie rock has on listeners and their environment.
While I saw the giant pod at the festival, I did not enter it because 1. I was frightened they were going to try to sell me something 2. I was busy watching bands and 3. I don’t enter dark booths without a compelling reason to. However, other festival goers didn’t share my reservations, and they heard bands like A$AP Rocky, Lower Dens and Beach House through headphones. They could have been hearing those bands without headphones during the bands’ sets, but then, how would they know what they’re feeling? eMusic’s study on music and emotion seemed pretty questionable, but the company concluded that basically “different people like things for different reasons.” Science!