I’ve posted before on the notion of how DVR’s (and I LOVE DVR’s) have changed the social behavior of people in the U.S. and beyond. The 12/12/12 concert was a good example of that. Granted the concert which was broadcast from Madison Square Garden went on for six hours until 1:30AM and watching the entire thing could be seen as a chore. What I liked about watching it live (I hung in there until Kanye performed and figured I’d watch the rest another time), was participating in all the discussions both during the event as well as the next day. If you’re interested I wrote about it in the context of viewing the World Cup Soccer tournament several years ago. http://wp.me/pn6jX-ca

Most people I know were very aware that the concert for Sandy relief ended up being a sort oldies show (sad but true aside from Alicia Keys, Kanye and Chris Martin). There were surprisingly good performances (Pink Floyd) and ones that were not so good (I thought The Who’s performance was tedious). So if you are under 40 you probably had little interest in the show. If you saw the people attending the concert there was a fair amount of gray hair in the audience.

But watching the performance live (if you recorded it there were no commercials to DVR through BTW) and even having Brian Williams urge you to call the long list of celebrities that were answering phones (we could not get through as the lines were always busy and donated online – something I’ve heard from most of my friends), you had the feeling that you were a part of something. That could only be felt if you watched it live and the shared experience lingered both during and after the concert.

What do you think? Is that kind of experience the same watching it live or recorded?