Is Concert Etiquette Dead?

Live music is a space to briefly find a community separate from the outside world. And as someone who goes to as many concerts as I can humanly afford, I live for the way music unites us–how an entire group of people make time to experience the same sounds in the same place. Over the past few years, I have seen live music culture transform for the worse, and distracting behavior from those around me has nearly ruined several shows and entirely overshadowed the shared experience. 

There’s no official rulebook, but concert etiquette should be common sense. If you can conduct yourself in typical social situations, you should be able to behave respectfully towards the performers and the audience around you. 

Unfortunately, social media–particularly TikTok– has commodified the concert experience for many younger audiences. With the user-generated nature of online content, anybody can have their five seconds of fame, and few types of content circulate as consistently as concert coverage. As a result, concerts have become content farms, and audiences have become understated competitions–a sea of phones recording everything in search of the next viral moment.

While some content is innocent and non-distracting (a quick clip of a heartfelt performance or a funny line between songs), many other types demonstrate blatantly disrespectful, selfish, and attention-seeking behavior, such as fans recording themselves with the flash on, throwing objects on stage, shouting at the artist during a performance, holding up large signs for long periods of time, and filming strangers in the audience without permission. 

It’s a sense of entitlement–fans putting themselves first at the expense of others, and, of course, recording every second. It seems social media has made some fans forget that performers do not owe us interactions and that we are not part of the show.

Popular R&B artist Steve Lacy came under fire two years ago for his reactions to fan behavior at his shows, namely by throwing and smashing a disposable camera that an audience member had thrown at him and telling a fan to “shut up” when someone asked him to say hi to their mom in the middle of a song. In an interview with Variety, Lacy lamented the virality of the incidents but stood behind his actions. In a way, this represents a power exchange. The concert experience used to center around audience appreciation of an artist and their art; however, at many shows today, individuals seem to think the focus should be on themselves.

Along with promoting disrespectful behavior, TikTok seems to attract a new type of audience, apparently one with the attention span of a fifteen-second to three-minute video. This poses a problem because a concert is, by definition, long-form entertainment. If a fan buys a ticket only to hear one song (or even a particularly viral thirty-second portion of a song), they are expected to sit through, and ideally appreciate, the entire show – including several hours of openers, less popular songs, and unreleased tracks. 

But today’s audience seems to have no patience for the unfamiliar. 

In September, I attended a concert where the group seated behind me sustained shouted conversation throughout the entire performance as if the show was meant to be background music. But later in the concert, the group became almost hysterically excited at the band’s biggest hits and left raving about the music. This experience demonstrates the unfortunate inability of modern audiences to simply listen and experience. Similarly, it is not uncommon for audiences to appear visibly bored during unpopular pieces or long instrumental solos, or even to leave midway through a concert after hearing certain songs.

Much of the older crowd calls the decline in concert etiquette a generational problem, blaming today’s teenagers and young adults. Without question, my concert experiences with older crowds are infinitely better, but blaming younger generations seems unfair as young people have been the soul of live music and fan culture since the Beatles.

The excitement at today’s live music is truly unmatched, and despite Steve Lacy’s infamously young crowd, he has learned to appreciate it. 

“It’s f***ing dope that I get to develop these kids' musical ears,” Lacy told Variety. “I’ve grown to be grateful for all this rowdy, youthful craziness.” 

Although much of this generation unconsciously learned poor concert behavior from TikTok, concerts can be reliably enjoyable again if individuals hold themselves and one another accountable. It all comes down to respecting other fans, the artist, and their art, and making an effort to not be the most annoying person in the room.