At this day in age, smartphone are everywhere. People as young as 5 years old have a smartphone. The way smartphones have worked there way and continue to do so is quite nerving. The digital era has made it's way into every industry especially the music industry. As you go to concerts, you'll see smartphones being a common factor everywhere you turn. You'll see the flashlights from the smartphones lit up all around the stadium as the musician performs and it is quite a beautiful sight to see. Social media seems to be a common factor when it comes to promoting and displaying concerts, but smartphones itself does a lot for concerts too. If there were no smartphones, there wouldn't be any social media posts to exist. The one thing that promoters and concert goers shouldn't forget is the word-of-mouth. Word-of-mouth doesn't have to be just talking. Word-of-mouth has "... become even more important with the internet and social media. Think: when you like something, you share it with your friends. Before, this meant waiting to see them or picking up the phone. Now, everybody is a quick text, direct message or click of the "Share" button away," (Agrawal, 2020).
Smartphones have amplified the word-of-mouth by ten fold. Now that we have undying access to the internet and social media, we see and hear about the unfortunate events that happen at concert. For example, this past weekend, the world has seen the unsafe conditions at the Travis Scott's Astroworld Festival which resulted in hundreds injured and 8 people dead. There was videos of people in cardiac arrest being crowd surfed to the front, people being crushed and stepped on, and people trying to stop the festival all together meanwhile Travis Scott continued to perform. Concert goer, Seanna Faith, released a statement on Instagram stating
"There was a floor of bodies, of men and women, below two layers of fallen people above them. I began to shriek... There were people. Unconscious. Being trampled by every foot that slammed into the ground as each individual tried to keep themselves upright. I saw his face. I became a shield for him. I think he smiled at me. Then I was shoved to the side. ... I saw more shoes slam to the ground. Exactly in the spot his body lay, face-up. I couldn't let him," (Faith, 2021). She then continue to state, "There were some people just standing there. Like nothing was happening. ... I saw the camerama, eyes glued to the stage, elevated on a platform. A platform that looked directly into the crowd. I climbed the ladder and pointed to the hole, telling him people were dying. He told me to get off the platform and continued filming. ... He wouldn't even look in the direction, so I pushed the camera so it pointed toward where I just come from. He became angry. He called someone else up. I told him the same thing. ... The other man grabbed my arm, and told me he would push me off the 15ft platform with no sides if I didn't get down," (Faith, 2021).
This whole interaction was caught on smartphone video and posted all over internet. There was no way of hiding what happened at the festival, all due smartphone video and social media. Videos of the people being crushed and screaming for help are all over TikTok, Twitter, and Instagram. Smartphones at concerts/festivals, although do take away from the experience at times, can provide evidence of terrible tragedies and be spread like wild fire. Smartphones are the best thing that you could bring to a concert in order to caption the moment, good or bad, and are a key holders to anything that happens at any concert or really anywhere.
Works Cited
Agrawal, A. J. (2020, February 6). How Digital Marketing Is Changing the Music Industry. Inc.Com. https://www.inc.com/aj-agrawal/how-digital-marketing-is-changing-the-music-industry.html
Faith, S. [@seannafaith]. (2021, November 5). I can't write anymore. To all the lost souls tonight, you were robbed. #astroworld #astroworldfestival #astroworldfest. Instagram. https://www.instagram.com/p/CV7NkBiLf3L/?utm_source=ig_embed&ig_rid=3dafde84-0b68-493b-891e-d478ed5f9d98
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