The idea of live popular music as mass entertainment is one that presents an arresting series of challenges and remains mostly unexplored in contemporary academic writing. And yet, it would seem, arena concerts are coming to constitute the commercial future of popular music, and popular music is being shaped by this phenomena. We ask: what, then, is this phenomena? And what then are the challenges that have blocked a critical engagement with this phenomena? The post-digital landscape of popular music consumption is one in which, paradoxically, “liveness”, the experience, and authenticity have been returned to their prime positions - perhaps for the first time since their folk (Newport) and rock (Woodstock) heydays. The failures to secure “the product” across the 2000s (via anti-piracy software and corporate malware, judicial attacks on Napster and Pirate Bay, the locking of hardware, and reimagining questions of ownership) have rapidly led to albums being reduced to little more than giveaway promotional fodder. The arena concert becomes the “real time” centre of a global digital network, and the gig-goer pays not only for an immersion in (and, indeed, role in) its spectacular nature, but also for a close encounter with the performers, in the contained space. This spectacular nature raises challenges that have yet to be fully technologically overcome, and has given rise to the reinvention of what the live concert actually means. One thinks of the autobiographical narratives that come into play, so that the gig is not just album-centred but life-centred (Alicia Keys revisiting the music of her childhood, Kylie Minogue reminiscing about illness and past gigs in the same cities), and not just a performance to attend, but a self-affirming event (Lady Gaga’s talk of her global constituency). The enormous canvas requires more - a “total” art. Hence the integration of the tropes and designs of the fashion show, the circus, theatre and dance, ritual and religion, the political rally and imm ersive video-gaming, which are offset by the ways in which (via giant video screens) intimate and often acoustic moments are achieved and shared (as with Keane and Coldplay). In this respect the arena concert has come to compete with outdoor gigs in stadia and at festivals in terms of remaking the live popular music experience for contemporary times.
Posted on: Thu, 27 Jun 2013 21:30:01 +0000
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