“Is it OK to stand—or dance—at a concert if everyone else is sitting? In an increasingly virtual world, live performances have become an etiquette minefield,” writes John Jurgensen in Thursday’s (11/10) Wall Street Journal (subscription required). “As Bruce Springsteen kicked off a recent concert at Nationals Park in Washington … in section 308, three tall men in the front row were on their feet, chugging beer, pumping their fists to ‘New York City Serenade’—and blocking sightlines.… They relented only after others complained. ‘I’m a millennial but the whole thing made me feel old and crotchety,’ recalls [concert attendee Jessica] Beard, a 32-year-old marketer. ‘There should be a code of courtesy at concerts.’ … Songkick, a music ticketing site that also compiles international concert data, polled its users … asking them to rank certain concert behaviors on a scale from acceptable to annoying.” Included is a list of “totally acceptable” behavior (shouting out song requests, crowd-surfing, taking a few snapshots) and “super annoying” behavior (arriving late and pushing to the front, becoming intoxicated, tall people blocking the view, climbing on someone’s shoulders to get a better view), as well as “mildly annoying” and “not a big deal” behavior.
Posted November 11, 2016
