User:Viriditas/Decline of concert etiquette in the post-pandemic era

The decline of concert etiquette in the post-pandemic era is a phenomenon that occurred after the COVID-19 lockdowns were lifted and live concerts began to attract new and seasoned audiences unfamiliar or out of touch with previously established concert etiquette. Multiple contributing factors are thought to be involved, including the desire to achieve notoriety through social media by attacking a famous musician and the anonymous nature of the concert venue.

Background
Concert audiences have a long history of violating concert etiquette. Tom Jones was famous for having crowds of women throw underwear at him, while The Beatles were victims of jelly bean projectiles. In the 1980s, an audience member threw a live bat at Ozzy Osbourne, giving his career a boost and a legendary backstory. David Bowie getting a projectile lollipop in his eye in 2004, and the on-stage murders of Dimebag Darrell and Christina Grimmie. Harry Styles in particular has had Skittles, chicken nuggets, kiwi fruit, tampons, feather boas, cowboy hats, and Pride flags thrown at him. In 2020, around 35% of UK music industry workers left their posts due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the music industry. Artists also have a long and inglorious history of naughtiness; with Axl Rose spending decades throwing his microphone into crowds before stopping in 2022 after giving an Australian woman a black eye and broken nose, while in March 2023 Chris Brown threw a fan's phone into the audience and in June 2023 Beyoncé threw sunglasses into the crowd.

Incidents
On 18 June 2023, Bebe Rexha brought her Best F*n Night Of My Life Tour to Pier 17 in South Street Seaport. At this, a New Jersey man threw his cell phone at her, giving her a black eye, and causing her to require stitches. For this, he was arrested, charged, and arraigned. Rexha wore protective eyewear during subsequent performances. Two days later, a man jumped on stage and slapped Ava Max at a Fonda Theatre "On Tour (Finally)" concert while she was performing "The Motto", prompting the show's planned meet and greet to be delayed by an hour. She later revealed that the inside of her eye was scratched.

On 24 June 2023, Sexyy Red ended her performance at that year's Summer Smash festival early after having objects thrown at her; six days later, she would chastise an audience at Detroit's Wild Mustang Gentleman's Club for throwing money at her. On 27 June 2023, on day one of a two-day leg at BST Hyde Park, P!nk received a wheel of Brie while performing "Fuckin' Perfect", and the day after received a fan's dead mother's ashes while performing "Get This Party Started". Also on 28 June 2023, during the Idaho Botanical Garden leg of her Heartfelt tour, Kelsea Ballerini had a bracelet thrown at her during her, triggering her PTSD, and prompting her to go off stage and chastise the audience on her return.

On 1 July 2023, while performing at Lollapalooza in Sweden, a fan threw a flashlight at Lil Nas X, leading X to quip "Who threw they pussy on stage?", and change his Twitter name for the whole of 3 July 2023 to "Pussy". On 5 July 2023, Drake had a phone thrown at him during his performance of Ginuwine's "So Anxious", during the United Center leg of his It's All a Blur Tour; fifteen days later, he had a lemon and mint flavour electronic cigarette thrown at him, prompting him to tell the audience member to do some "real life evaluating", and the day after that he had a 36G bra thrown at him by a TikTok er, who was later offered an appearance in Playboy. On 26 July 2023, he had a woman's purse thrown at him.

Later that month, Harry Styles and Taylor Swift had bracelets thrown at them, and Latto had an object thrown at her, prompting her to threaten the concertgoer responsible with having their "ass beat". On 29 July 2023, in an incident caught on camera from multiple angles by several fans, Cardi B reacted to having water thrown at her by launching her microphone at the audience, prompting security to surround the perpetrator and retrieve it. A concertgoer later reported her for battery, a claim later assessed by the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department but dropped due to a lack of evidence. The microphone was later auctioned by the owner of an audio equipment hire company, raising $99,900. Additionally, the fact that her voice could still be heard caused her to face allegations of lip synching.

Academic
David Thomas, former police officer, professor of forensic studies at Florida Gulf Coast University and an expert on the psychology of crowds, explained the phenomenon by highlighting the shared anonymous nature of both concert venues and social media. Thomas believes this anonymity, fueled by intoxicants, creates an explosive atmosphere. "A large crowd offers anonymity. So the things that you might be thinking that you wouldn’t normally do, that would be against normal social values, are exactly the opposite in the crowd. You kind of feel that you could disappear in that crowd, and it’s hard to point the finger at an individual."

Carla Penna, psychoanalyst and crowd researcher, blames social media and fan culture, and also points at misogyny and the increase of impulsive behavior and aggression in the post-pandemic era.

Security experts
Paul Wertheimer, concert security expert, believes that live concert etiquette has always had its issues, but has diminished in recent years. "Fans throwing projectiles at artists is as old as rock ’n’ roll, but there’s still no excuse for it. The line between the stage and audience, and the sense of decorum around it, has really faded", he told the Los Angeles Times. Wertheimer believes the decline in concert etiquette since the pandemic is part of a larger pattern that was already playing out since Christina Grimmie and Dimebag Darrell were murdered, and that the music industry failed to learn and take precautions, especially in the wake of the 2017 Las Vegas shooting at the Route 91 Harvest country music festival, the 2021 Astroworld Festival crowd crush, and the 2023 mass shooting at the Beyond Wonderland electronic dance festival.

Musicians
The spate of concert abuse prompted Adele to threaten to "fucking kill" anyone who threw anything at her, before turning a T-shirt cannon on her audience. Tyler, the Creator responded by begging fans to "stop throwing [their] shit on stage", Charlie Puth responded by begging fans to "just enjoy the music", and Jason Derulo responded by stating that such assaults "disrespect the artist". Billie Eilish noted that people had been throwing things at her for six years and that it was "infuriating", while Alicia Keys responded by installing her eight year old son as a security guard, and Kelly Clarkson put in a request that concertgoers throw diamonds at her instead; she got a teddy bear. Taylor Swift fans responded by creating a concert etiquette guide.

The abuse has been attributed to various causes. Some fans put it down to artists such as Doja Cat, Olivia Rodrigo, and Billie Eilish taking fans' phones mid-performance and filming themselves, and impatient fans wanting to be part of the action, while others blamed artists for throwing objects into the crowd themselves. The crowd safety manager Paul Wertheimer blamed post-lockdown aggression, and suggested that security could stand in the crowd instead of close to the stage, while the live event production company CEO Bob Brecht suggested seating the crowd far enough from the artist that they couldn't reach them, but noted that artists would not stand for this.

Joel Golby of The Guardian suggested it was a combination of three trends. He suggested that "the elastic back-and-forth of fan and artist closeness that boomed during the peak of social media (and led to the current ferocious energy of stan culture)" starting to regain "its controlled distance again" meant that fans were struggling to accept that their favourite artists were "letting someone from “their team” do all their tweets and grid posts again", and that with TikTok being filled with comprehensive footage of prior gigs, fans needed another way of getting a unique experience. He also blamed fans for wanting to enter fans' lore books, and for wanting to become a meme, though pointed out that some artists were encouraging the latter. The psychoanalyst and crowd researcher Carla Penna also blamed social media for eroding the borders between fans and artists, though also mooted misogyny as a possible cause, and suggested that "2½ years of lockdown and social distance" meant that "people changed their behavior, and many still feel uneasy in crowded or confined spaces".