Sound Horeg" as Sonic Spectacle: Collective Bodily Immersion and Participatory Entertainment Culture in Indonesia's Digital Entertainment Space

Lawrence Philip

doi:10.63922/ijeter.v4i03.5877

Lawrence Philip Produksi Film Dan Televisi, Akademi Komunikasi SAE Indonesia

DOI: https://doi.org/10.63922/ijeter.v4i03.5877

Keywords: sonic spectacle; collective bodily immersion; participatory entertainment culture; sensory digital ethnography; hybrid immersive media

Abstract

The transition in current entertainment culture has seen audience experience move away from passive consumption towards an immersive, multimodal and participatory involvement. In this context, the birth of “Sound Horeg” in Indonesia exemplifies a sonic-based form of public entertainment characterised by excessive loudness, bass intensity, collective bodily participation and extensive digital circulation. Existing studies on immersion and participatory culture have largely concentrated on virtual reality, digital fandom, educational embodiment and online interaction, with scant emphasis to sonic-driven immersive experience in public entertainment venues. This study therefore seeks to explore how “Sound Horeg” functions as a sonic spectacle to create collective bodily absorption and participatory entertainment culture inside hybrid physical-digital settings. This study adopted a qualitative interpretative approach using sensory digital ethnography and multimodal thematic analysis. Data were acquired using immersive field observation, audiovisual documentation, sound environment analysis and digital ethnography in TikTok, Instagram Reels and YouTube Shorts. The results show that acoustic intensity and bass pressure act as immersive triggers that produce physiological synchronicity, emotional amplification and collective audience participation. The study also shows that participatory documenting methods expand immersive experiences into digital media contexts through audiovisual circulation and short-video culture. The findings also suggest that “Sound Horeg” creates a hybrid physical-digital immersive ecology in which music, bodies, crowd interaction, and social media circulation continuously reinforce one other. This study contributes to the field of creative media and digital culture studies by extending the concept of immersion beyond virtual simulation to a sonic-driven communal sensory experience. The paper also introduces the aural Spectacle Immersion Framework as a conceptual tool to describe the relationships between aural intensity, bodily synchronisation, emotional contagion, participatory documentation and digital circulation within modern immersive entertainment culture.

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