Filming the moment, missing the music

by Bell Velez

There was a time—apparently prehistoric, like the early 2010s—when people went to concerts to actually experience them. You know: singing along, making eye contact with the stage, maybe even feeling something.
Now? It’s less “live music” and more “live-streamed evidence that I was there.” Social media hasn’t just changed concerts, they’ve kind of ruined them. The second the lights go down, it’s like an unspoken competition begins. Who can get the best angle? Who has the steadiest hand? Who can post the clip first with a caption like “best night ever” while actively not watching it happen in real time? Instead of thousands of fans connecting over music, it’s thousands of tiny screens blocking your view like a digital forest of bad decisions.
There’s something deeply ironic about paying a lot of money to see your favorite artist, only to watch them through your phone the entire night. Like congrats, you spent $150 to recreate a worse version of a YouTube video you could’ve watched for free. And it’s not just about filming. It’s about performing. Not for the artist, but for everyone who might eventually see your Instagram story.
Suddenly, concerts aren’t about the music, they’re about proving you have a life. People don’t just want to be at the concert; they want everyone else to know they’re at the concert. Preferably in real time. Preferably with perfect lighting.You’ll see people recording full songs. Full. Songs. Like what is the plan there? Are you going to rewatch a shaky, off-key version of your favorite track where someone screams directly into your microphone? No. You’re not. It’s going to sit in your camera roll forever, right next to that blurry photo of your dog from 2020.
Meanwhile, the actual experience is happening right in front of you, and you’re missing it because you’re worried about storage space. And don’t even get me started on the people who hold their phones above their heads for the entire concert. Not eye level. Not a quick clip. No, fully extended arms like they’re signaling for rescue. At that point, you’re not just ruining your own experience; you’re ruining mine too. I didn’t come here to watch your phone watch the concert.
Artists have started noticing this too. Some have literally asked fans to put their phones away, which should not have to be said out loud. Imagine being on stage, performing your heart out, and looking out to see a sea of people staring at their screens instead of you. That’s not a concert, that’s a content creation workshop.To be fair, social media isn’t entirely evil. It lets people share moments, relive memories, and show off experiences. But somewhere along the way, we stopped balancing it. Instead of enhancing concerts, it’s taken over them.
Maybe the solution isn’t to ban phones completely, but just… chill. Take a few pictures, get your clip, and then put it away. Be present. Because the whole point of a concert is that it’s happening live, once, in that moment. And if you spend the entire time recording it, congratulations,you successfully captured the memory while simultaneously not making one.

Why the best memories deserve a replay

by Lola Babinksi

There’s nothing quite like waking up the morning after a concert, stuff from the evening prior piled on your floor, voice sore, that bittersweet feeling lingering in your brain from the euphoric night before, and opening your phone to a multitude of videos and pictures that collectively take up 10 gigabytes of storage.

But those videos and pictures don’t just eat away at your phone’s storage, they represent lasting memories for you to look back on one day, one year, or even 10 years later. 

Whether your intention was to post about the concert on Instagram or just have the video and pictures to have them, social media does not ruin concerts, in fact it does the opposite.

Thanks to social media I feel connected to so many of my favorite artists’ fan bases. Now more than ever we see things like friendship bracelet trading, chants for specific songs, and an overall stronger feeling of connectedness happening at concerts that strengthen the communal feeling that comes with being a part of a tight-knit fan base. None of that would have been possible without social media.
It’s also absolutely worth noting that a lot of people don’t have the opportunity to see their favorite artists live and social media can provide something similar to that experience. Maybe the artist isn’t visiting their city, maybe they don’t have the financial means to go to a concert, or maybe they forgot the password to their Ticketmaster account, and by the time they logged in Ticketmaster put them in a never ending queue….But, you know what’s free and available anywhere you are? A YouTube video of the concert. 

I’m not going to say that watching a concert video on YouTube “feels exactly like you’re there!” because obviously nothing can beat the real thing, but it does give you that boost of serotonin and feeling of anemoia (nostalgia for something you’ve never experienced). You get to hear the crowd, the singer’s raw vocals, the live version of each song, and see the concert from the perspective of an audience member. Even if said audience member seemed to be recording off of either a 15 year old Nintendo 3DS or one of those fake spy pens with a camera in it.

There is nothing wrong with going to a concert with the intention of recording some videos and taking some pictures to post on social media. Wanting to document an unforgettable night is a good thing; recording a video at a concert doesn’t rip all of the fun out of the experience.

Concerts have so much sentimental value to them, and whether it’s seeing you and your friend’s matching concert posts or seeing an artist’s story they posted while playing in your city, social media adds a feeling of connectedness, community, and nostalgia that wasn’t there before.

Not to mention, Social media has made strides for small artists. It’s given them the platform to share their music and grow in popularity. Starting a career in music was substantially harder 20 years ago; now small artists’ songs are going viral and they’re able to build up a stable online and in-person following thanks to social media.

Next time you go to a concert and feel the need to scoff at the sea of phones in the audience, think about it this way: every phone that’s up represents one person wanting to capture and remember such a fond moment; and whether that video ends up on their private Instagram account or being watched on YouTube by a fan wanting to know what their favorite artist sounds like live, it’s sweet knowing that every person in that venue found the night to be special enough to use 10 gigabytes of storage on.