By Maria-Nefeli Andredaki,
Though I have not had the privilege of attending plenty of concerts, I am proud to have a few big names under my belt, namely Taylor Swift, Arctic Monkeys and Muse! Having experienced The Eras Tour firsthand and being in the presence of an Oasis revival, I think it is a good opportunity to enter the larger conversation about Gen Z’s apparent lack of concert etiquette, as many avid concert-goers believe.
Let’s preface this by saying that social media has allowed musicians (as well as actors and other celebrities) to sky-rocket to fame and amass insane amounts of fans. This large number of people, who are all eager to experience their favourite music live, is bound to lead to a few mishaps, unless rules are agreeably and unanimously followed. It seems that current teenage and twenty-something-year-old attendees have been testing the patience of older ticket-holders, marring their concert experience with their inappropriate behavior, even creating problems for the musicians themselves!
Starting off with ticket-buying habits, it is true that younger generations have the privilege of being able to easily navigate online ticket queues, going as far as even hacking websites. Once upon a time, if you wanted to purchase tickets for a concert, you simply visited your local shops. Now, with the obscene number of people willing to attend a concert, the demand can only be accomodated online and in the form of two-thousand-people queues. Again, as someone lucky enough to have attended The Eras Tour, I can attest to the Tickemaster experience being an extremely stressful and difficult process.
The other point that needs to be made is what I call the “ticket-hogging” phenomenon. Taking Taylor Swift concerts as an example once again, it is very common that hyper-excited fans employ all means and people necessary to obtain multiple tickets. We’re talking about 5, 6, 10 shows! While I do not want to judge what someone does with their hard-earned money, it is seriously absurd to go to the exact same show so many times, knowing that that seat could have gone to someone who has never seen that artist before and might never have the chance to. Many are the tweets and TikToks of older men who used to be big fans of Oasis, but lost their chance to go to one of their limited shows and see their favourite band together after so many years, due to a Gen-Z-er who only knows the lyrics to Wonderwall.
As far as the actual concert is concerned, there are many instances where people’s lives are put at risk by rude, inconsiderate youngsters who, most likely, aim at being recorded and going viral on some social media platform. Crawling and climbing on pieces of equipment, violently pushing and shoving to get to the front of the stage, drinking and recording videos of themselves doing weird stunts are just some of the things older concert-goers find distasteful and dangerous. Unfortunately, rude behavior towards the artist is not uncommon either. In an attempt to get (online) attention, many people will throw objects or inappropriate comments towards performers (that they paid to see perform…), interrupting their set or souring their mood for the rest of the night.
It;s really common for younger generations to complain about older ones, but, in this case, gen Z is definitely in the wrong. We need to collectively be more considerate of the people around us, especially inside packed venues where many things could easily go wrong. Let’s just all be respectful and enjoy these rare opportunities of connecting through music!
Reference
- Poor concert etiquette takes center stage, Gen Z discusses. State Press. Available here
