Recording Concerts Creates Societal Pressures
December 10, 2014
This week, I had the exciting opportunity to go to a concert that my friend and I have been dying to attend. We were happy, but not surprised, to find out that the alternative band “The 1975” puts on a great show. However, the audience’s behavior wasn’t so great. I’ve been to many concerts, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen so many camera phones out and pointed tothe stage.
Matt Healy, the band’s lead singer, was obviously not happy with this. During two songs he specifically asked the crowd to put away their phones, and when two people continued to record, other fans complained and yelled at them. Personally, I would never record after Matt Healy asked me not to, and I’m not sure being one of the only people who have video of “Me” by “The 1975” is worth the hate.
To be honest, I hate the whole thing about recording concert performances. I always feel pressured to record everything, which leaves me with tons of 15-second video clips that I’ll probably never listen to again. My phone is filled with all these videos that I don’t feel comfortable deleting because I know that I’ll regret it, which leaves me with an awful choice between my valuable storage space and my memories of the night. I always delete other things instead of these videos, even though I will literally never watch these clips again.
I really wish that this was not a phenomenon and that everyone could just enjoy concerts without feeling the pressure to record every moment. It’s hard to enjoy yourself while you’re staring at a screen, but that is how many of us live these days. We want so badly to save things for later, instead of enjoying it in present. There are so many amazing experiences in life that we miss by because we are busy desperately trying to keep it all saved. The truth is, you can take a picture of blurry hands in a crowd, but you can’t take a picture of the way you were feeling at that moment. So next time you’re at a concert or any other experience that you may want to whip out your iPhone to record, just think again and enjoy the moment.