If you’re at a concert, it’s almost guaranteed that you’ll see phones around you. Whether it’s people recording an Instagram story, or videos to watch months down the road when they feel like reminiscing on the experience, phones have become a staple at concerts. But what happens when phones get in the way of the audience fully connecting with the performer?
Singer-songwriter Mitski recently voiced her frustration at seeing audience members on their phone during most of her set. In a now deleted Twitter thread, she explained how she values connecting with her audience when performing, and when the audience is focused more on filming the concert than enjoying it she feels this communion between artist and audience is severed.
“When I’m on stage and look to you but you are gazing into a screen, it makes me feel as though those of us on stage are being taken from and consumed as content”.
– Mitsuki Laycock / Mitski
Many Twitter users and concert goers disagreed with her, arguing that if they are paying for tickets to a concert they should be able to enjoy that concert in whatever way they chose. If this includes being on their phone and filming songs, then they have paid for that right. However, this response highlights the issue that Mitski was calling attention in the first place; a negative response to an artist stating their preference of behaviour at their concerts perhaps highlights how people have begun to think of artists as products. As the business phrase goes, “the customer is always right”, and it seems like people have begun to apply that to concerts.
Hannah Vigneux, a uOttawa student and singer, also had an opinion about phones at concerts through the perspective of a performer. They said that “having phones out and up filming videos…is different then someone having their head tilted down into their phone. It makes me feel good to see people with phones out that are taking photos or videos…because it just tells me that people enjoy [the performance] so much that they want to preserve [the] memories physically. On the other hand, someone in the front row with their head down lit up by their phone screen makes me feel like there is something else a lot more enthralling than my performance to them, which kinda feels awful”.
Personally, I’ve gone to many concerts and I have mixed emotions on the role of phones at concerts. There’s definitely been times where I’ve used my phone to record my favourite parts of a song and have enjoyed watching these videos after the concert. At the same time, I understand the feeling that constantly being on your phone during a concert kind of removes the listener from the experience of sharing the moment with the performer. In general, Mitski’s tweet highlights the growing debate of the role of phones at concerts, which is part of the bigger issue of the role of phones in general. Have we become too dependant on phones to the point where we can’t put them down during a concert? Or are we simply enjoying the perks of being able to save a moment in time? These are questions may never reach a definite answer, but you should consider them next time you go to a concert and reach for your phone.