Nobody's With The Band

Between TicketMaster’s tyranny and a new wave of bad show manners, will concert-going ever be the same?

By Phoenix Simpson

Ticketmaster crashes. Camping. Disrespect towards artists.

If you’ve attended a concert in the past year, you’ve probably noticed that the atmosphere has changed. Since concerts have made their grand return, the once straightforward act of buying tickets and seeing your favorite artist has been transformed into a free-for-all where a pleasant experience isn’t guaranteed…if you can even make it to the door.

A new generation of concert-goers has arrived, and it seems that all established concert etiquette and decorum have gone out the window.

Shoving to the front, large obnoxious signs, and incessant talking during sets are all instances many music lovers are facing as stadiums are filled with audiences who seem to be lacking a basic understanding of how to behave in a crowd.

When in a confined space with others, one must act with care for those surrounding them to ensure a safe and enjoyable experience. In such a hyper-individualistic society, it’s easy to see why someone would value their own experience before everyone else’s, but if everyone is serving their own interests, everyone’s concert experience will, surely, be significantly worse.

In past decades, such as the 60s and 70s, when festivals, like Woodstock, brought out hundreds of thousands and girls everywhere left home to become groupies, the concert culture was first established. “I imagine things were less uptight. Free, I guess you could say,” says Gracie Kahn, an Emerging Talent Associate at Atlantic Records and Usher and Ticket Taker at Terminal 5. “People just wanted to have that experience where you see an artist perform live — that energy is indescribable. I think the same thing goes for today, but there are major differences as far as security precautions and the overall rise of technology.”

While everyone was confined to their homes during the height of the pandemic, many people, mainly adolescents, were deprived of their first introductions to concert-going. This has led to crowds filled with unruly teens who have no knowledge or care for basic rules or practices at shows and festivals.

The Internet has only exacerbated young concertgoers' lack of understanding, as you can’t go to a concert now without witnessing a sea of phones obstructing the view of the performer. It’s unreasonable to expect no filming at a concert, as it’s normal for us all to want to capture and look back on a moment we cherish. The flip side of this is that when you film for so long or at a specific angle, it takes you and fellow concertgoers out of the moment that’s meant to be enjoyed in real-time.

While filming can be a nuisance, other behaviors can take on a more dangerous form with bigger consequences.

Throwing gifts at an artist (especially flowers and underwear) has been a staple of concerts for decades but somewhere in the last few years, it has become normalized to chuck objects — including, but not limited to, water bottles, shoes, cameras, and even Skittles (Harry Styles fans everywhere are still on the hunt for the perpetrator) — directly at an artists head.

In 2022 alone, Kid Cudi, Steve Lacy, and Matty Healy all addressed onstage that their safety was being put in jeopardy through some very fed-up outbursts. It now seems that certain concertgoers cannot distinguish between showing love for an artist versus their own selfish attempts to get a performer’s attention.

Mosh pit culture, where crowds aggressively push or slam into each other, is another trend that has exploded in recent years and can have serious and harmful consequences. Although general admission works on a first-come-first-serve basis, some unhappy and inpatient fans take matters into their own hands by deciding to push their way to the stage right before or during the set. Even if the sense of fairness is removed, it’s never okay to forcibly move somebody without their consent.

This is even more extreme at certain concerts and events as it can be encouraged by the artist themselves.

Playboi Carti is a rap artist who has a culture at his shows that’s been built primarily around mosh pits and raging. In the past, he’s encouraged his fans to get lost in the music and go wild without any care for others’ safety. This has resulted in real injuries that have lasting consequences. With the newfound push for concert safety, Carti and other artists have become more cautious about how their fans behave during sets, with warnings before the show and taking breaks when necessary.

On March 3, 2023, during his Rolling Loud California performance, Carti stopped the show and announced, “It’s an emergency right now, someone’s hurt in the f***ing crowd. Let’s take a break right now.” This effort to monitor the crowd’s behavior and assess their safety marks a positive shift in how artists and their teams view concert safety.

The lack of concert etiquette may cause issues for many concert-goers, but will only matter if you’re able to secure tickets in the first place.

Ticketmaster is the world’s largest ticket seller, according to the Associated Press, owning around 70 percent of the market share. They’ve also merged with LiveNation, the world’s largest concert promoter, which allows them to sign exclusive deals with venues and threaten to blacklist artists if they don’t comply with their rules.

These practices force consumers to pay Ticketmaster’s outrageous fees or simply render them unable to attend as there are no other sellers left in most cases. With an institution this large and powerful, who could have predicted that Taylor Swift could spark their potential dismantling?

After the release of her tenth studio album, Midnights, Swift announced “The Eras Tour,” which will span her past and present musical eras. The demand for this tour was unprecedented, with Ticketmaster claiming that over 3.5 million “Swifties” registered as verified fans to gain access to their presale.

The now infamous presale resulted in delays, site crashes, and the general sale being canceled one day before it went live. While Ticketmaster blames fans and bots for these issues, the Senate Judiciary Committee questioned the company in January 2023 over "anticompetitive conduct.”

The insane demand for an artist as widely popular as Swift shows us that even if they’re going on world tours in stadiums that hold 80,000, the opportunity to see the artist that you love is becoming a scarce commodity.

Concerts have now joined the likes of vacations, becoming luxury experiences that many people have to save up for and splurge on. Due to the rising costs of concerts, the days of everyone going to concerts are over and are now becoming a signifier of wealth. Flaunting pit tickets to “The Eras Tour” online is now on par with owning a designer handbag.

Fears surrounding inflating ticket prices have increased so drastically that some fans have taken to attempting to gatekeep artists at all costs. While The 1975 surpasses fifteen million listeners on Spotify, certain fans take umbrage with their songs going viral on social media due to the idea that they may no longer be accessible.

The sloppy handling of “The Eras Tour” ticket sales put pressure on Ticketmaster when Beyoncé announced her “Renaissance World Tour.” All eyes were on the company to handle the high demand as they’d just come out of the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing.

This time around, according to NPR, they implemented “staggered registration deadlines and presale dates, in addition to using its ‘Verified Fan’ system to try to minimize bots.” They’ve also made sure to keep expectations in check by clearly stating that some fans might not be able to secure tickets due to the number of people interested. Ticketmaster heard the backlash from all sides after the Taylor Swift fiasco and is making sure to find new ways to get customers tickets in this competitive climate.

The presale for the “Renaissance World Tour” went smoothly, with no major technical issues, and most fans received presale codes as promised. A pleasant change of pace for a tour of this scale, but it came with strings attached.

Due to Ticketmaster’s dynamic pricing, where prices fluctuate based on customer demand, prices quickly increased by hundreds of dollars without warning. This move resulted in fans still upset as they may have had access to purchase tickets through the site, but the unreasonable price tag presented yet another barrier.

The heavily inflated costs of concerts post-pandemic have resulted in fans of every genre missing out on experiencing their favorite artists perform. With prices being this steep, the amount of potential customers seems to be rapidly shrinking, which has created a new phenomenon.

Concerts are now commonly sold out by bots and scalpers who raise the price past what consumers are willing to pay. Many of these overpriced tickets go unsold and artists now perform to empty seats instead of the fans who couldn’t afford it. Companies like Ticketmaster still haven’t created a viable solution to keep tickets out of the hands of scalpers and accessible to the consumer.

At first glance, the future of concerts seems bleak, with numerous entry barriers and obnoxious crowds, but hopefully. this is just an uncomfortable transition period after the initial COVID shutdown. The government will hopefully create new regulations that fight monopolistic practices and companies will adapt to give their customers the best chance to access these tickets.

And as for the outrage over the lack of concert etiquette, experienced concertgoers have used social media to inform the next generation. Countless videos have been uploaded on TikTok in recent months instructing viewers on basic, well-established, rules to follow when attending a concert. With many of these videos garnering thousands of likes, the effort to bring back etiquette has begun to be successfully revived.

If a sense of decorum can be instilled once again in concertgoers, maybe we can finally shift our focus to just enjoying the music and never have to be bounced to the back of a Ticketmaster queue ever again (our hearts go out to you Swifties).