The following piece is an opinion and does not reflect the views of The Eagle and its staff. All opinions are edited for grammar, style and argument structure and fact-checked, but the opinions are the writer’s own.
Concerts have changed drastically over time. Features like mobile tickets, the rising popularity of music festivals and social media dilute their authenticity. People used to buy tickets to see their favorite songs live with their main motivation for attending being the music itself. Today, people increasingly attend concerts as a social activity, an event where they can spend time with friends and post on Instagram.
This trend in live music isn’t all bad. Attending concerts casually can help people discover new music and meet new people. It also contributes to artists’ earnings, allowing the music business to continue. However, some aspects of live performances have been left in the past.
One such aspect is an intimate audience. When apps like TikTok and Instagram popularize “one-hit wonders,” people become fans of songs rather than artists. This results in people not actually knowing many of an artist’s songs when they attend a concert.
While this might increase ticket sales and artists’ earnings, it makes concerts feel more like social events to pass the time than meaningful experiences with other fans. Often, it feels like people attend concerts to hear only a handful of popular songs rather than to experience and partake in the community of an artist’s fanbase.
Not only does this detract from the concert’s energy level, but it also detracts from the fans’ enjoyment. When considering what makes music enjoyable, familiarity is the most important factor, so it makes sense that concerts are more satisfying when you know every song.
In an age where people listen to music on apps rather than CDs or vinyl records, it is easy to pick and choose the songs you want to listen to. However, when attending a concert, why not dive deep into an artist’s discography? This would make the concert more enjoyable for any individual.
Another aspect that makes it harder for true fans to enjoy music is ticket prices. Ticketmaster has a monopoly over ticketing, controlling over 80 percent of major concert primary ticketing since 1995. The Department of Justice sued the company in an ongoing lawsuit from May 2024, claiming that the company uses exclusive ticketing with venues, threatens retaliation against competitors and blocks venues from using multiple ticketers to maintain its monopoly.
Since tickets are expensive and exclusive, wealthier people are more likely to attend concerts. The qualifier for concert attendance has changed from musical knowledge to affluence, making concerts less intimate.
Additionally, with the emergence of technology that allows for live performances to sound like radio versions of songs, we lose the imperfections that make performances authentic. When artists perform their songs live with a band or with dancers, the show is more intimate and genuine than an autotuned, solely vocal performance.
This also helps promote other musicians besides the headlining artist, as other live bands tour alongside the headliner. For example, rock legend Jimi Hendrix was a background instrumentalist, which gave him exposure and enabled him to develop his own music.
The most intrusive aspect of concerts is also the most obvious: our phones. People rarely enjoy a concert solely for the memories they’ll make. Instead, we record videos of our favorite songs. Often, people go too far with videotaping, which detracts from a concert’s energy. In 2022, Steve Lacy smashed a fan’s camera after another fan threw a camera at him on stage.
This obsession with filming every moment confuses me, as most artists have professional photographers who later post their content on Instagram and YouTube. Why don’t we just watch those videos for the sake of memories? They’re probably from a better angle and of higher quality. If people did so, concerts would feel more exciting, and people could more easily live in the moment.
While modern concerts offer benefits such as discovering new music and increasing artist earnings, they exclude many aspects that make a concert meaningful. Next time you’re thinking about attending a concert, make it a point to support artists you actually enjoy listening to.
And don’t just show up to the concert. Prepare for it in the weeks leading up to it by listening to the artist’s discography. Then, when you get there, enjoy the concert — someone else is recording a video you can watch later.
Avyay Sriperumbudur is a junior in the School of Public Affairs and College of Arts and Sciences and a columnist for The Eagle.
This article was edited by Quinn Volpe, Alana Parker and Walker Whalen. Copy editing done by Sabine Kanter-Huchting, Emma Brown, Arin Burrell and Andrew Kummeth. Fact-checking done by Aidan Crowe.
