As days become shorter and colder, it’s apparent that the 2024 concert season has all but wrapped up. The music industry is ever changing as different artists strive to be number one, leading to massively high-budget tours. With expensive tours comes high ticket prices. In addition, the introduction of smartphones disrupts the concert experience generating a new question: is it worth it?
In this day and age, it is not uncommon to see $200 tickets for nosebleed seats, making concerts inaccessible to a large number of fans. In extreme cases, people have paid upwards of $15,000, the price of a car, to see a concert. No person should have to take out a loan to see an artist live. Music should be accessible to people of all ages and tax brackets. To add insult to injury, fans are subjected to hours in a virtual queue, and then charged hundreds of dollars in handling fees.
Michael Jackson was charging $15 for general admission tickets in 1997, approximately $30, adjusted for today’s inflation. To contrast, Taylor Swift, an artist of similar fame, has tickets that cost $120 for an upper-bowl, top of the stadium seat, with an additional $100 handling fee.
To add to the bank breaking ticket prices, crowds have no concept of concert etiquette. With people recording with flash during inappropriate times, screaming the lyrics, or even peeing in the middle of the concert, it’s safe to say that being socially aware at concerts is a thing of the past. It goes without saying concerts are not a lawless land. Just because you’re seeing your favorite artist doesn’t make peeing on the floor to avoid losing your spot in the pit acceptable.
Don’t get me wrong, I understand that seeing your favorite artist live is an incredibly exciting experience. That doesn’t justify screaming the whole time and ruining the experience for people around them. For example during Beyonce’s Renaissance tour she sang the song “ENERGY” she sang the lyrics “Look around everybody on mute” and then a moment of silence. It goes without saying that people ruined the experience by screaming, leaving people who played hundreds of dollars for the show disappointed.
It is my opinion that the impolite crowds and the traumatizing ticket prices make the concert experience no longer worth the trouble.
