Live Performance in the Age of Phones, Social Media, and our need to Self-Position

The inception of the mobile phone in the early 2000s was, without a doubt, one of the most revolutionary innovations of my lifetime thus far– and maybe yours too. I vividly remember the day my parents purchased their first ever cell phones, a matching pair of Motorola Razrs.

From the iconic photos of Paris Hilton sporting flip phones on the red carpet to today, the mobile phone’s capabilities have advanced tremendously– we now essentially carry around mini computers with us everywhere we go that provide a sense of security, platforms for social connection, learning resources, and the tools to capture soon-to-be cherished memories.

In the age of social media and online presences, we have our small devices at arm's length all times of day, and have become fixated on publicly framing our lives the ways we want others to perceive us– on nights out, in new cities, and to celebrate our accomplishments. And concerts are no exception.

It is no surprise that at shows, masses of people have their phones out in an effort to immortalize the cultural figure before their very eyes. I can say with confidence that I’ve attended a number of crowded concerts where it’s impossible to see the artist because the people in my periphery watched the show not with their eyes, but with their camera lenses.

Coachella 2024 has come and gone, and Tyler the Creator’s festival billboards on the road that led into the festival shared a similar sentiment that criticizes concertgoers’ heavy reliance on our phones. ‘I would love to see y’all faces and not your phone lights,’ the sign read.

Tyler isn’t the only artist who’s taken a stand against our phone-obsessed society’s dishonoring of artists. While on a North American tour in early 2022, Mitski took to Twitter to address the phone epidemic she was bombarded with at shows. She wrote,

‘Sometimes when I see people filming entire songs or whole sets, it makes me feel as though we are not together [...] and when I’m on stage and look to you, but you are gazing at a screen, it makes me feel as though those of us on stage are being consumed as content.’

Rather than receive validation, Mitski experienced nothing but backlash in return, to the point that the Tweets were soon removed. Despite this, Mitski’s efforts have been echoed by a number of other renowned artists–Beyonce, Adele, and Silk Sonic members Bruno Mars and Anderson .Paak, to name a few.

Have the calls to action reached concert-goers, or are we too far gone in our obsession to capture and share the highlights with our online following.There might just be a paradigm shift on the horizon. I recently had the opportunity to attend the Los Angeles leg of Andre 3000’s New Blue Sun tour, a 150-person capacity show at the Masonic Lodge inside of the legendary Hollywood Forever cemetery. It wasn’t until I arrived that I realized it would be a no-phone show.

That, combined with the fact that the small audience was fully seated and the performance itself included reverberations from the most distinctive of noises coming from offstage– a baby’s wail or the opening of a soda can– all coalesced into the night being one of my favorite shows ever. There was no clapping along and neither Andre nor Carlos Niño, his collaborator, asked the audience to wave their phone flashlights. Yet I have never in my life felt more connected to the soundscapes of a place during a musical performance.

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What a great relief it was to not feel the pressure of having to pull out my phone to record the ethereal harmonies or Andre’s warm humor, but rather to experience them with my own eyes and ears. It was a reminder that setting the external noise aside always takes the cake. Besides, how often do people actually revisit those oddly timed videos taken at concerts, where the back of someone’s head probably takes up the majority of the frame?

Another signal that we might actually be reverting to our pre-technological customs that honor musical performance might be just under our noses if we look at how underground clubs and venues operate in music capitals globally. In NYC alone, Bushwick’s Nowadays and Ridgewood’s Basement are two dance clubs that follow the school of thought that music should remain at the epicenter and everything else be secondary; both venues prohibit the use of phones, and the security guards at Nowadays are not shy to dismiss any guest that rejects the no-phone policies.

This is a movement in an overall positive direction, but one major caveat that must be taken into account is the huge impact of phones in the realm of free press for the rising artist. More often than not, the recordings at shows and sets that audience members take are what end up becoming viral online moments, so it's essential to consider the type of artist that might benefit from the presence of phones at live performances. Sure, Rosalîa and Radiohead don’t rely on iPhone captures to boost their online presence and likeness, but it’s undeniable that so many moments from the crowd that become viral stir meaningful discourse. Even for the world’s biggest artists like Harry Styles and Taylor Swift who have small social media presences, this is what keeps them relevant.

When it comes to any city’s local DJs and independent musicians, their successes are undoubtedly impacted by and hugely reliant on audience footage that serves as a testament to their skill and can determine both a booking agent and prospective attendee’s interest levels.

In a perfect world, society wouldn’t be as consumed with our phones the way we are now, but it’s the world we’ve manufactured and now we are left to deal with it. Ideally, music lovers wouldn’t spend the majority of their time at shows recording them, but would be more focused on creating core memories. And on the flip side, artists would feel more appreciated to look out to audiences of people rather than seas of the latest iPhone.

As Mitski put it, “Sometimes, if we’re lucky, we can experience magic at a show. But only if we’re there to catch it’ (Fader).

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