Imagine you were a camera operator at country concert this summer. It was your job to capture fan footage. What would you look for?
Likely you'd search out fans who know all the words, or pretty girls with big brown puppy eyes swaying to the beat. If you could zoom out far enough, you'd include the ocean of hands in the air, swinging back and forth, and back and forth. And Back... and forth.
Unity.
From what I can gather from old concert footage, this type of stuff didn't happen 30 years ago.
I watched some old Waylon Jennings concert footage last week. His fans were possessed. Each acted out as if driven by a personal devil. Screaming and jumping and herky-jerky hand shakes that had no respect for the beat of the song or the people around them.
I recognize that my research is limited to old concert footage and it's possible that Waylon Jennings' production team didn't do as good of job syncing “B-Roll” with the music as we do today. But I suspect that somewhere along the way we lost our sense of identity within the concert experience. Allow me to expand on this... Does this sound familiar?
Artist: Hello Raleigh!!!
Crowd: Wooooooo....
Artist: How ya'll doin' tonight?!?!?
Crowd: Woooooo....
Artist: I can't hear you!!!
Crowd: WOOOOOOO!!!!
It's every concert you've ever been to. I doubt that three decades ago fans answered their artist's inquiry of well being with “Hmmm, not too bad. My daughter is teething, but it's Friday night and I've had a few beers. So I'm pretty good. How's by you?”
But I bet there weren't as many “Woo-girls/guys.”
How about another example? When was the last time you saw a sincere, genuinely unscripted encore? I'm not sure I've ever seen one. Sometimes an artist will just walk off the stage.
Like he's gonna' leave without saying goodbye.
So we cheer and stomp and pretend we don't know that concerts end at 11 pm, and it's only 10:45 and Skynyrd hasn't played “Free Bird” yet. Pay attention at the next concert you attend. You'll find the noise to be less urgent. We've all played the game too long to believe that our applause has anything to do with whether or not Kenny returns to the stage.
Waylon wouldn't have put up with that. If the crowd didn't make some dang noise he'd have said “Screw it!” and went and found an open bottle of whiskey.
Likely you'd search out fans who know all the words, or pretty girls with big brown puppy eyes swaying to the beat. If you could zoom out far enough, you'd include the ocean of hands in the air, swinging back and forth, and back and forth. And Back... and forth.
Unity. From what I can gather from old concert footage, this type of stuff didn't happen 30 years ago.
I watched some old Waylon Jennings concert footage last week. His fans were possessed. Each acted out as if driven by a personal devil. Screaming and jumping and herky-jerky hand shakes that had no respect for the beat of the song or the people around them.
I recognize that my research is limited to old concert footage and it's possible that Waylon Jennings' production team didn't do as good of job syncing “B-Roll” with the music as we do today. But I suspect that somewhere along the way we lost our sense of identity within the concert experience. Allow me to expand on this... Does this sound familiar?Artist: Hello Raleigh!!!
Crowd: Wooooooo....
Artist: How ya'll doin' tonight?!?!?
Crowd: Woooooo....
Artist: I can't hear you!!!
Crowd: WOOOOOOO!!!!
It's every concert you've ever been to. I doubt that three decades ago fans answered their artist's inquiry of well being with “Hmmm, not too bad. My daughter is teething, but it's Friday night and I've had a few beers. So I'm pretty good. How's by you?”
But I bet there weren't as many “Woo-girls/guys.”
How about another example? When was the last time you saw a sincere, genuinely unscripted encore? I'm not sure I've ever seen one. Sometimes an artist will just walk off the stage.
Like he's gonna' leave without saying goodbye.
So we cheer and stomp and pretend we don't know that concerts end at 11 pm, and it's only 10:45 and Skynyrd hasn't played “Free Bird” yet. Pay attention at the next concert you attend. You'll find the noise to be less urgent. We've all played the game too long to believe that our applause has anything to do with whether or not Kenny returns to the stage. Waylon wouldn't have put up with that. If the crowd didn't make some dang noise he'd have said “Screw it!” and went and found an open bottle of whiskey.
1 comment:
you also know the encore isn't done when the "lights" don't come on LOL
Post a Comment