Live music etiquette is getting out of hand — is post pandemic behaviour to blame?
During the pandemic, there was a lot of talk on the state and future of live music, things around the world looked uncertain and with venues seemingly closing left and right in places like London, things looked bleak. Fast forward 3–4 years and we seemed to have largely gotten back to normal, the biggest stars and bands are on their summer tours, festivals are back and the existential threat posed by Covid seems to have largely faded away.
What’s the issue?
If you’re regularly online, follow pop culture news or are an avid gigger, you may have recently seen stories or performers having stuff thrown at them, from a phone thrown at Bebe Rexha in 2023, actually giving her a black eye. To a piece of brie cheese being given to Pink, along with someone incredibly throwing alleged ashes the other week at another one of her shows.
The phone throwing phenomenon isn’t entirely new and has been documented for a few years, but it’s new enough to highlight as being something fans probably would never do 10 years ago. And in an era of pining for viral moments and hoping an artist will take a photo with your phone or record something, that could explain some of the behaviour. However this isn’t always the case and the artists are fighting back, as Chris Brown would probably tell you, after notably throwing a fans phone back into a crowd. Similarly, the vivacious singer Steve Lacy notoriously smashed a fans camera and stormed off mid-song after being hit with it late in 2022, at the Orpheum theatre in New Orleans.
This sort of behaviour from the artists may seem petulant and over the top but in contrast, what does it say about the people that are throwing items on stage at artists? At best they’re vain attempts to personally connect with a performer in a sea of thousands of people and at worst, it’s borderline assault and ruins the flow of a performance. To be fair, this isn’t being done by the majority of gig-goers, but it’s almost like there’s a weird sense of entitlement with some live show attendees, to feel like the artist owes them a special moment or interaction, ahead of everyone else. And that they’re also fair game to any silliness that goes down at gigs, because the silliness is coming from ‘dedicated fans’.
Chasing virality
Which ironically is to say that spending dozens if not hundreds of pounds for a gig that everyone couldn’t go to isn’t enough and you need a personal, special moment. This behaviour is clearly unhinged, but unfortunately doesn’t quite seem to be slowing down. I’m not sure if it’s post-Covid derangement, a lack of accountability or chasing after viral moments but it really shouldn’t continue, unless said people want new rules to be put in place to protect artists.
There’s a lot said about live show etiquette in general from seasoned attendees, don’t get drunk and obnoxious with dancing or jumping around/bump into people, if you’re really tall, be conscious of shorter people around you and so on. But it feels like not throwing potentially harmful objects at artists performing should really go without saying. Similarly, experimental hip hop group Death Grips has even abandoned shows due to disruptive fan behaviour, including fans dressing up like children and throwing objects on stage. With said things being done by certain fans as ‘memes in real life’.
Ultimately, people go to gigs to see their favourite performers up close and personal but these shows aren’t an avenue for farming viral moments, abusing or throwing things at your supposedly favourite singer and if you’re there to do exactly that, you may need to re-evaluate your priorities. Despite parasocial relationships and obsessive fandoms, people should remember that artists are just human like them, and not just objects to be desired or treated badly in pursuit of a viral moment.
