The culture of filming at live music events has shifted and evolved since the first recorded live music footage back in the 1930s. Seeing a beloved musician live has always been a big deal, so it’s logical that people want some kind of symbol to remember the experience–this is why buying merch became such a popular trend. Even better than just having a symbol, however, is having the real footage to replay and relive the moment.
Before the widespread popularity of the mobile phone, gigs were recorded professionally by videographers. If concertgoers were lucky, maybe they would see the footage on TV which they could then save onto their VCRs or VHS, but there was no definite. Then, MTV came along and made premium live performance footage mainstream. Everyone could see their favourite artist live right from their living room, so people were more at peace to go to the gigs and enjoy the moment, knowing that they would be able to see professional footage of the artist in action on the Internet or TV.
There was a specific hotspot for concertgoers, a time in the ’90s to 2000s when people had mobile phones, but it wasn’t yet particularly popular to record at gigs. A time for “living in the moment”. There are a few reasons as to why this could be: concertgoers were still relatively new to the digital world and phones weren’t yet depended on as heavily as they are now–people still regularly left their houses without them. Concertgoers in the ‘90s were still used to the perception that live gigs were not somewhere that one would be on their phone. Sure the footage could be found online and maybe on TV, but it was more that the desire itself to encapsulate the moment just wasn’t there. Is “living in the moment” really dead in the current “phone recording at gigs” culture?
There is no inherent problem with wanting to capture the moment at a concert, especially not after paying £300 for tickets to see a favourite artist for two hours–it is a moment to remember forever. Reliving the concert through the videos is a cherished pastime for many. A live show can feel so much more worth it when there is footage that will stay with you forever; once the memory of the day has faded, there will always be that recording as a refresher. Going home from a concert and sharing the videos of favourite parts with friends, or posting them on social media, is all part of the fun–so why is it such a hot topic?
The real problem stems from excess recording on phones, to the extent that it no longer feels as if anyone is truly present at the gig at all. Sure it is nice to capture a 15-second video or two, but watching the entire concert through the screen of a phone–what’s the point in being there at all? What’s even worse is realising that every single person in the crowd is watching the show through their phones instead of watching the artist in front of them, it can have an eerie meta feeling. This isn’t to say that one cannot be present in the moment whilst recording on their phone, but it does seem to take away from what being at a live show is all about–the community, non-digital socialisation aspect.
So what is the solution to the filming on phones at gigs predicament? People want to remember and revisit their concerts but also be able to ditch the phone at the concert. Most of the time, with all the huge crowds and dancing, the phone-recorded footage usually ends up being blurry, poor quality and unfocused anyway. In the age of modern tech, and with the price that people pay for concert tickets these days, it would make sense for concert-goers to be emailed copies of the professional videography taken from their concert. This way people could still post on their socials and revisit the footage, but they don’t need to live through their phones during the concert itself.
Photo by Grisha Petrosyan on Unsplash