Gen Z has been known for creating chaos in all types of ways, but one thing that continues to spiral out of control is concert culture. Between camping out days before a show and fans fighting online for tickets, it is harder than ever to enjoy going to see your favorite artist.
Coming from personal experience, going to concerts is an experience that you just cannot replicate and will be a memory that will last a lifetime. With that being said, there’s a lot about concerts that are not so fun nowadays. When loving a prominent artist like Harry Styles or Taylor Swift, getting tickets can be almost impossible.
We’ve seen the Taylor Swift fiasco recently with Ticketmaster, where many fans were left disappointed after not being able to buy tickets to see her highly anticipated “Era’s Tour” coming up in 2023. The ticketing process has become very complex, with presale codes and long queue lines. This has led to outraged fans fighting on Twitter over who “deserves” the tickets or not.
Concert culture on Twitter brings toxic and negative feelings among fans. Our generation has had the world at our fingertips for as long as we could remember with social media. It is easy for us to say things online that we would not typically say to someone’s face, which becomes problematic. Fans on Twitter will fight over who is the bigger fan and who deserves tickets, hence creating a toxic fanbase and atmosphere. Concerts are supposed to be a welcoming space, but with entitled fans it can lead to a negative concert experience. Instead of fans coming together to celebrate the artist they all love, they pit each other against one another.
A toxic fan environment also leads to the recent problem of camping before concerts. Everyone wants to be up close and personal with their favorite artist, so it becomes a competition of who can get barricade. I have fallen victim to this myself.
My friend and I woke up at 3:30 a.m. and went to sleep on the streets of Chicago in hopes of getting a good spot to see Harry Styles. Although we got there quite early, we were still number 208 in line. Extreme fans will set up tents and camp out days before the actual event. This begs the question, is it too much? The answer: it is too much, and has been for a long time now.
Looking back, should I have risked my own safety by sleeping on the streets of Chicago in hopes to get a closer peak at Harry Styles? Probably wasn’t the best idea. The idea of being barricade comes with bragging rights on social media; being able to show all of your followers that you were closer than they were.
Perhaps I am being cynical, but the main purpose of concerts seems to be fading away slowly. Our generation has turned it into a big contest. Who got the closest? Who got the best video of them? Who camped out the longest? Who got the artist’s attention? All of these questions mean nothing to what a live music concert really means to people. Live music, especially from your favorite artist can be a great form of healing and a nice dose of serotonin.
We need to appreciate the music and artist for what it is, and leave out everything else. Concert culture has become a social contest. Why can’t we all just get along and enjoy the music?