Concert abuse in the 2020s

Concert abuse in the 2020s is a phenomenon attributed to the loss of concert etiquette between the audience and the performer. Concert abuse has a long history, but recently experienced a notable resurgence in the 2020s after the COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns were lifted and audiences began to return and attend live concerts again. After social distancing began to dissipate in 2021, multiple performing artists became the victims of fan misbehaviour.

Notable incidents include the cancellation of a concert and loss of ten lives in two separate events in October and November 2021 at the NRG Arena. Bad fan behavior has interfered with the performances of artists such as Dua Lipa, Harry Styles, Lady Gaga, Justin Bieber, Coldplay, The Killers, Miley Cyrus, Rubén Albarrán, Gerard Way, Maroon 5, Mac DeMarco, and Rosalía, among others. Artists have criticized fans for their lack of concert etiquette which endangers performers. Billie Eilish, Finneas O'Connell, Jason Derulo, Charlie Puth, Kelly Hansen, Tim McGraw, and John Mayer have all condemned the behavior.

The occupational hazards of performing on stage have been known since at least the 1760s, with historical spikes increasing in the 1950s. The post-pandemic decline in concert etiquette and rise in concert abuse in the 2020s is variously attributed to the effects of lockdowns, social media, misogyny, status symbolification, and artists' own on-stage behaviour.

History

Main article: Bottling (concert abuse)

Concert audiences have a long history of abuse beginning in at least 1763, when an Artaxerxes audience revolted at the withdrawal of half-price tickets for those who came to the theatre after the main play to see the after-piece. In the 1840s, fans of Hungarian composer Franz Liszt engaged in outrageous behavior known as Lisztomania, which was considered a real contagious medical condition at the time. Audience misbehaviour increased sharply in the 1950s. After George Harrison said that his favourite sweet was jelly babies, audiences threw jelly beans at his band The Beatles; similarly, from 1968 onwards, Tom Jones' audiences threw underwear at him on stage. In 1982, a fan threw a live bat at Ozzy Osbourne on stage, which he then bit the head off of.

Many artists have suffered injury while performing. In 2004, David Bowie had to pause a show after a projectile lollipop hit his eye and Dimebag Darrell was killed on-stage, and the following year Pierre Bouvier was hospitalised after receiving a bottle to the eye at an Ovation Music Festival concert, prompting his band Simple Plan to cancel an appearance at ReAct Now: Music & Relief. In 2006, Brendon Urie was bruised and knocked out by a bottle at Reading Festival, resuming "The Only Difference Between Suicide Martyrdom Is Press Coverage" after resuming consciousness; and in 2010, Tila Tequila received a cut to the face that drew blood while performing at Gathering of the Juggalos, and later had the windows of her SUV smashed by an angry mob. In May 2013, Toots Hibbert commenced a three-year break after developing anxiety, memory loss, headaches, dizziness, enochlophobia, and stage fright after a bottle hit him in the head at an American festival performance, for which the thrower was imprisoned for six months; and in 2016, Christina Grimmie was killed after a concert. Additionally, a suicide bomber killed himself and 22 others at an Ariana Grande concert, leaving the singer with post-traumatic stress disorder.

Some artists made interacting with projectiles part of their act. Harry Styles, who had previously had tampons thrown at him while a member of One Direction, and who slipped on a splattered kiwifruit at a November 2017 Hammersmith Apollo concert (which caused a Hulme branch of Asda to ban sales of kiwifruit to under 25s), would wear feather boas and cowboy hats and wave pride flags thrown by audience members. Meanwhile, artists such as Doja Cat, Olivia Rodrigo, and Billie Eilish would take fans' phones mid-concert and film themselves. In 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic meant that the live music industry shut down, with around 35% of UK music industry workers permanently leaving their posts; after restrictions eased, said industry experienced a renaissance, largely due to first-time attendees.

After COVID-19

When concerts reopened after COVID-19 pandemic social distancing measures began to lift, there was a sharp increase in audience misbehaviour. In October 2021, fans breaching security barriers outside NRG Arena caused a Playboi Carti concert to be cancelled due to security concerns, and on 5 November 2021, at the same venue, fans surged toward the stage during Travis Scott's set, squeezing people so tightly together that they could not breathe or move their arms, resulting in ten deaths. Another crowd crush at a December 2022 Asake concert at Brixton Academy caused the death of two concertgoers; initially blamed on a ticketless mob, the crush was found to be down to security failures, prompting Lambeth London Borough Council to close the site, causing 44 acts to have to find alternative sites for their concerts.

In November 2021, a concertgoer at that year's Corona Capital festival passed a Dr. Simi doll through the crowd after seeing Aurora accept a bouquet of flowers and a card from a fan, a common custom amongst Mexican concertgoers. After she hugged the doll, the exchange went viral, prompting others to follow suit; with Dua Lipa, Harry Styles, Lady Gaga, Justin Bieber, Coldplay, The Killers, Miley Cyrus, Rubén Albarrán, Gerard Way, Maroon 5, Mac DeMarco, and Rosalía having them thrown at them over the following fifteen months. Most were grateful, with Rosalía specifically requesting them, although Albarrán responded by biting its head off, and Gaga's Little Monsters responded to a doll hitting her in the head by criticising the launcher. In March 2022, videos of concertgoers sexually harassing Clairo during her performances of "Blouse" were posted online, shortly after which she acquired a sinus infection and took the opportunity to take a break from performing in general, necessitating the rescheduling of several dates of her Sling Tour.

In July 2022, Kid Cudi ended a Rolling Loud Miami concert early after being bottled, and the following month, Harry Styles, a vegetarian, was hit by a flying chicken nugget at Madison Square Garden, prompting him to ask who threw it. He would later be hit in the testicles by a flying object in October 2022, attacked by Skittles the following month, and attacked with bracelets in July 2023. In October 2022, Steve Lacy reacted to an iPhone being thrown at him by smashing it. In December, Azealia Banks refused to play further concerts in Australia after having a bottle thrown at her and Kehlani reported that a fan had sexually assaulted her as she left a concert, and in April 2023, Kane Brown's testicles were hit by an expensive projectile cowboy boot at an Intrust Bank Arena concert shortly after he sung "I was in the wrong place at the wrong time" from his Marshmello feature "One Thing Right", prompting him to sign it and return it to the audience member.

On 17 June 2023, an active Joint Base Lewis–McChord member killed two people after taking mushrooms at that year's Beyond Wonderland, and the day after, a New Jersey man threw his cell phone at Bebe Rexha while she was performing her Best F*n Night of my Life Tour at Pier 17 in South Street Seaport, giving her a black eye, and causing her to require stitches; the assailant was arrested, charged, and arraigned for the attack. Two days later, a man jumped on stage and slapped Ava Max at a Fonda Theatre "On Tour (Finally)" concert while she was performing "The Motto", prompting the show's planned meet and greet to be delayed by an hour. She later revealed that the inside of her eye was scratched, and that the perpetrator would not be allowed any of her other shows. On 24 June 2023, Sexyy Red ended her performance at that year's Summer Smash festival early after having objects thrown at her; six days later, she would chastise an audience at Detroit's Wild Mustang Gentleman's Club for throwing money at her. On 27 June 2023, on day one of a two-day leg at BST Hyde Park, P!nk received a wheel of Brie while performing "Fuckin' Perfect", and the day after received a fan's dead mother's ashes while performing "Get This Party Started". Also on 28 June 2023, during the Idaho Botanical Garden leg of her Heartfelt tour, Kelsea Ballerini had a bracelet thrown at her during her, triggering her PTSD, and prompting her to go off stage and chastise the audience on her return.

On 1 July 2023, while performing at Lollapalooza in Sweden, a fan threw a fleshlight at Lil Nas X, leading X to quip "Who threw they pussy on stage?", and change his Twitter name for the whole of 3 July 2023 to "Pussy". On 5 July 2023, Drake had a phone thrown at him during his performance of Ginuwine's "So Anxious", during the United Center leg of his It's All a Blur Tour; throughout the tour, videos of Drake getting pelted with bras, and occasionally shoes and hats, surfaced on social media, prompting him to express deep disappointment at not having them thrown at a Montreal concert. A 36G bra thrown at him by a TikToker prompted the wearer to be offered an appearance in Playboy. By 12 August, bra throwing had become such a regular occurrence at his concerts that he had to request attenders of that day's Show Court Arena concert not to do so due to his then five-year-old son being in the audience; the custom of bra throwing later prompted The Game to also have bras thrown at him and for 50 Cent to express jealousy that bras were not being thrown at him. Drake also had a lemon and mint flavour electronic cigarette thrown at him on 20 July 2023, prompting him to tell the audience member to do some "real life evaluating", a woman's purse thrown at him on 26 July 2023, and one of his poetry books thrown at him on 19 August 2023, which he caught, and threatened that he would have "had to beat [the] ass" of the perpetrator had it hit him.

In July, Taylor Swift had friendship bracelets thrown at her as she was leaving an Eras Tour concert at Arrowhead Stadium, with one of them almost hitting Swift in the face, prompting her to duck, and for her security guards to scold the audiencegoer responsible. On 9 July 2023, Latto had an object thrown at her, prompting her to threaten the concertgoer responsible with having their "ass beat", and on 29 July 2023, Roméo Elvis – who had taken a break from performing after being accused of unwanted touching – was pelted with stones at an Ecaussystème festival concert, prompting him to call his audience "junkyard dogs" and tell them to "aim better". Also on 29 July 2023, in an incident caught on camera from multiple angles by several fans, Cardi B had water thrown at her face; both she and her DJ had earlier requested that the audience "splash her pussy". She reacted to having water thrown at her by launching her microphone at the audience, prompting security to surround the perpetrator and retrieve it. The fact that her voice could still be heard caused her to face allegations of lip synching; in addition, a concertgoer later reported her for battery, a claim later assessed by the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department but dropped due to a lack of evidence. The microphone was later auctioned by the owner of an audio equipment hire company, raising $99,900. On 13 August, a fan threw her bra at Nick Jonas at a Yankee Stadium Jonas Brothers concert, and a few days later, Nick was hit by a wristband at a Toronto concert, prompting him to warn the thrower not to do that again.

Reactions

The abuse has been attributed to various causes. Crowd safety manager Paul Wertheimer argued that the abuse should be seen as part of a wider pattern that had cost Christina Grimmie and Dimebag Darrell their lives, and criticised "the industry" for not learning lessons from their deaths; Wertheimer also blamed post-lockdown aggression for the post-pandemic increase in threats against performers, and suggested that security could stand in the crowd instead of close to the stage to better address the problem. Bob Brecht of live event production company TSE Entertainment proposed seating the crowd far enough away from the artist so that they could not reach them, but believed artists "would never stand for that, because they get a lot of their enthusiasm and excitement from a crowd". Contributing to the security problem, Alaina Demopoulous of The Guardian noted that security concerns were focused more on crowd crushes following the Astroworld and the Seoul Halloween crowd crush incidents.

Some fans attributed the behavior to artists taking fans' phones mid-performance and filming themselves, with impatient fans wanting to be part of the action. Others blamed artists for throwing objects into the crowd. Notable examples of this include Axl Rose, who for decades was known for throwing his microphone into the crowd, only stopping in 2022 after an Australian fan received a black eye and broken nose; Chris Brown, who threw a fan's phone into the audience in March 2023 after objecting to being filmed while administering a lap dance; and Beyoncé, who threw her sunglasses into the crowd.

Joel Golby of The Guardian suggested it was a combination of three trends. One, "the elastic back-and-forth of fan and artist closeness that boomed during the peak of social media (and led to the current ferocious energy of stan culture)" beginning to regain "its controlled distance again" meant that fans were struggling to accept that their favourite artists were "letting someone from 'their team' do all their tweets and grid posts again". Two, with TikTok filled with comprehensive footage of prior gigs, Golby said fans needed another way of getting a unique experience. And three, Golby blamed fans for wanting to enter fans' lore books and for wanting to become a meme. Golby pointed out that some artists were encouraging the latter. Carla Penna, psychoanalyst and crowd researcher, also blamed social media for eroding the borders between fans and artists. She noted misogyny as one possible cause, and suggested that "2½ years of lockdown and social distance" meant that "people changed their behavior, and many still feel uneasy in crowded or confined spaces".

Serena Smith of Dazed argued that new concert attendees did not know how to behave, and asserted that some fans had main character syndrome. Lucy Bennett put forward the idea that fans might be forming parasocial relationships with their favourite artists, which could explain part of the problem. Rachel Soloff of The Pitt News wrote that she was most bothered by "the feeling of entitlement that these fans felt about these artists", and suggested that, having engaged with them via social media and Instagram Q&As, "fans may see these musicians as a peer rather than an artist who they don’t actually know", which led them to "believe that because they support an artist, they have to do exactly what the fans want and indulge their stupidity". She also blamed the status symbolification of attending concerts caused by "the exorbitant pricing of concert tickets", and singled out Ticketmaster and Bruce Springsteen for criticism.

Madison Heydari of The Daily Reveille noted that the abuse was part of a decline in the general concert experience. The rise of the popularity of TikTok during the pandemic meant, Heydari explained, that some fans retained their "desire to video everything in hopes of capturing the perfect moment". Heydari argues that this fear of missing out (FOMO) made every aspect of attending concerts a competitive space, from purchasing tickets to finding the right clothing to wear. She also observed that at some concerts, fans would camp out for days and even weeks before the show. Once the concert began, the first five rows of concertgoers were often motionless to facilitate filming for posting on social media.

When Harry Styles was assaulted by Skittles, this prompted venues to stop allowing fans to bring gifts; DJ Zane Lowe also asked fans to stop throwing things at artists. The spate of concert abuse in the summer of 2023 prompted Adele to threaten to "fucking kill" anyone who threw anything at her, before turning a T-shirt cannon on her audience. Alicia Keys responded by installing her eight-year old son as a security guard, while Kelly Clarkson put in a request that concertgoers throwing objects at her throw diamonds; she later had a teddy bear thrown at her. Her diamonds remark was later praised by Kelsea Ballerini. Tyler, the Creator begged fans to "stop throwing [their] shit on stage", John Mayer requested that fans "please be kind", Charlie Puth responded by begging fans to "just enjoy the music", and Kelly Hansen chastised the "very, very dangerous" trend. Jason Derulo responded by stating that the assaults "disrespect the artist", while Billie Eilish noted that people had been throwing things at her for six years and that it was "infuriating". Finneas O'Connell said that he understood fans' urges but pleaded them not to act on them. Tim McGraw said he was "used to soft goods being thrown at" him, but asked fans not to "throw anything that’s got any heft to it", as a premature concert ending due to injury "ruins the show for everybody". Dave Mustaine, on the other hand, was unsympathetic, arguing that if the artists gave a good enough show, audiences would not feel the need to express disapproval. Additionally, Bebe Rexha's assault prompted her to wear protective eyewear during subsequent performances, while Taylor Swift's assault prompted her fans to create a concert etiquette guide.

See also

• List of classical music concerts with an unruly audience response