Programming LED strip to pulse to external music

I'm creating an "alpha rod" for a music festival, basically a large stick that my friends can see from afar and know where we are so we don't lose each other. I want to program an LED light strip for it.

What I currently plan on using:

-arduino micro with headers Arduino Micro with Headers - 5V 16MHz - (ATmega32u4 - assembled) : ID 1086 : $24.95 : Adafruit Industries, Unique & fun DIY electronics and kits

-Adafruit addressable RGB strip, LPD8806 Digital RGB LED Weatherproof Strip - LPD8806 32 LED : ID 306 : $149.75 : Adafruit Industries, Unique & fun DIY electronics and kits

-A battery pack, to be planned

It's not necessary, but I would love to program it to act similarly to these LED shirts that pulsate to music, Graphic Equalizer EL T-Shirt - YouTube.

I've found a lot of tutorials for programming the lights to pulse to music that is directly connected to the audio source, but nothing that helps with programming it with external sound sources. I would greatly appreciate any suggestions on where to start!

"Microphone"

fungus:
"Microphone"

Thanks. I've never really understood pompous replies from people who know a lot about a subject. Putting the word "microphone" in quotes is not only incredibly unhelpful, but also condescending. I've received a lot of great replies elsewhere, but thanks for leaving a bad taste in my mouth about this place, and confirming my distaste for specialized forums.

Looking at the Adafruit tutorials you can see that they use external sound (sound from the real world) as well.
They have done this using a microphone:

I agree with your PP but shouldn't this solve your problem?