New research by the ticketing website Eventbrite polled more than 1,000 UK gig-goers for their opinions on using mobile phones during concerts. Of respondents, 70% said they were annoyed by people constantly taking video or photos of the show, and 69% said they would support "more than minimal action to minimise the disruption". Eventbrite's suggestions varied in popularity: "no-phone zones" and audience spot checks received less than 20% support each, but the idea of "gentle nudges to make phones more discreet" received 41% support.
There is of course a spectrum of behaviour here. Holding up an iPad with both hands to film a gig, as I once saw, is so brazen as to almost be laudable, but ultimately hateful. More common is someone – generally male – stood motionless with their phone out, ready to upload the footage to their own YouTube channel for an audience of 17 people. Not only is this protracted filming annoying for the audience, artists probably don't appreciate this bootlegging; some artists, such as Jack White and Sam Smith, have recently demanded phones be locked in special pouches before their show begins.
Much of this annoyance and friction, though, is good old intergenerational conflict. Half of all respondents said they themselves took photos or video at gigs, but this rose to 62% among 18-24 year-olds. At your average rap gig, where the audience is dominated by this demographic, 62% seems conservative: the arrival of the star on stage is always met by a sea of phones.
For a generation normalised to constant documentation of their surroundings, being forced to stop would seem totalitarian, and indeed it is. At a rap show, theirs isn't the leaden documentation of the YouTube bootlegger: this chaotic shaky-cam footage feels woven into the chaos of the gig, networking it beyond the building's bricks and mortar; the lights of screens and flashes help to spill the energy off the stage and unify crowd and performer.
