Infinite Disco vs. Studio 2054. Toward a Film Psychology of Virtual Concerts in the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

The reinvention of virtual concerts throughout the COVID-19 pandemic experienced a tremendous surge of innovation during 2020, culminating in Kylie Minogue’s Infinite Disco and Dua Lipa’s Studio 2054. This article offers a comparison of the two concert livestreams, which is already formally apparent because of their common theme, timely proximity, and the cooperation on the track “Real Groove.” However, a film-psychological analysis with particular attention to the concert beginnings reveals aesthetic differences that are essential in terms of the concert experience. Specifically, for the reception situation of a lockdown, it is shown that high levels of intimacy, coherence, and self-reflexivity concerning the pandemic lead to a higher degree of synchronization between the concert and its spectator(s) and accordingly to a stronger intertwining of concert and reception aesthetics. Thus, who has the ‘real groove’?