Picture this: a whole audience of thousands of people focused on one specific thing before them. No one is checking their messages, their emails, or their Instagram notifications. Everyone is present. Together. This is the reality of a no-phone concert experience.
Now, no phone sounds scary, right? In a way, it kind of is. There is no way to connect with anyone or anything outside of the stadium or venue you are in. But I think not having a phone to pull out makes a concert experience so much more impactful to yourself, the musician, and your fellow crowd members.
Why No Phones?
Art is meant to be consumed by the masses, and music is one of the most complex ones out there. A person can easily memorize their favorite song. They can feel a song deep inside their soul as if it actually came from there. Music is an art that brings us all together. This is why concert experiences are so important. You get to see a raw performance right before your eyes and feel that musical connection that brings everyone in the venue, friends or strangers, together.
No-phone policies aren’t new. If you see a comedian in New York City, they’ll likely lock up your phone to keep anyone from recording their skits so that they aren’t leaked and spoiled to the public or anyone seeing their show with the same jokes later on. Musicians have done it before for shows as well; it’s just not something that is super normalized. But I think that it should be. The art of music is so raw and personal, and having no phone allows each person to be fully consumed by the art rather than waiting on a notification to chime from their pocket or watching the performance before them through their phone camera.Â
An idea I like to use to build on this is a museum visit. Say you have around two to three hours (around the time of a live concert) to roam around and look at whatever paintings, statues, or other works of art interest you. Say you find a beautiful painting before you. Is your first instinct to capture a picture of it to look at later? Or is it to stare at the painting, take in the colors, details, brushstrokes, and impressions of it? It’s likely the latter. When you take this idea and think of concerts in this way, you may suddenly have an entirely different impression of them than before.Â
My Experience
But what makes me so knowledgeable on this topic? Recently, I had the pleasure of seeing Phoebe Bridgers live in Brooklyn, New York, at the Barclays Center. We were required to lock our phones in a Yonder pouch before entering the venue. This meant none of my usual photos or videos for Instagram, no texting my friends or family. Nothing. I remember the concert starting and how I would stare at Bridgers at some points, thinking, “This would make a really good picture.” That is when I really opened my eyes to my own idea of concert-going. The real reason I go to see any artist live isn’t to document my experience on social media. It’s to see my favorite songs played live and feel the bass pulse from my feet to my heart, allowing me to feel the music fully. It’s nothing like listening to music through headphones; it feels so much more real. That is really what I and many other concert goers crave.Â
I remember sobbing millions of times during the show. I felt so consumed by the music and the lights. I wasn’t thinking of anything else that had happened that day or the subway ride home after the concert ended. I was in the here and now, and so was everyone else. The connection I felt between myself, the rest of the crowd, and the artistry before us was indescribable. When I tell you this concert was life-changing, I mean it.Â
What It Means To The Artist
At one point in the concert, Bridgers stopped to address the audience and thank us for giving up our phones to see her. How having that kind of privacy meant so much to her. This made me think about how respectful this would be for any artist. To have the full attention from the people around them, to feel heard and seen from the work that they’ve spent so many hours on and poured so much emotion into creating. Artists do work for themselves, yes, but they also do it for us, their audience. Isn’t it our duty to thank them for that? And what better way than giving them our full attention, free of any external distractions? It won’t only be magical for us, but also for them.
Closing Thoughts
In the end, music is one of the most universal and impactful arts in the world. This is why we as people are so attracted to it. Having a phone-free concert allows the audience to take in the art before them and be fully impacted by it. That’s why we love it, and at the end of the day, that is what we all pay for.