Collective engagement with culture including music and the arts can trace societal changes associated with acute disruptions, such as pandemics, political movements, and wars. Can the daily shared experiences of culture reveal deep and long lasting societal impacts of disturbances? We collected longitudinal data of 17.8 million music discoveries via Shazam across 1,423 cities and 53 countries, relating them to the onset of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022.