Trends change, they can’t be the same forever, and resisting transition doesn’t help us with being content in life. Change, of course, pushes us out of our comfort zones and forces us to face the unknown. The quicker we accept that change is inescapable, the happier we’re going to be. This pandemic has directed us towards digitalization in every sphere of life. No different than what happened following catastrophes such as World War I, World War II and the Great Depression; the coronavirus crisis is acting as a catalyst to accelerate trends that were already underway for how we live, work and play. It may also generate some changes we might not have imagined.
The entertainment industry is in peril as social distancing and self-quarantining make performing live music and attending live shows all impossible. Tours have been postponed or outright cancelled, and state and local prohibitions on large public gatherings have closed venues indefinitely. For many live music fans, spring is the most important season. Bands hit the road and large festivals, such as Tomorrowland, South by Southwest and Coachella, kick off a busy concert season. In isolation, the music feels even more necessary than usual. Fans know that, and musicians know that.
The question that comes up is how our popular culture scene is faring through all of this. What has it been like to adapt to the current pandemic?
One of the first events to be cancelled was the K-pop concerts due to Covid-19. With this, as many people would expect, K-pop labels are taking a hard hit, profits are going down, and this is a really tough time indeed. Due to this, many artists in quarantine are finding other ways to perform live. They are rallying around hashtags like #TogetherAtHome. These singers and labels have resorted to another strategy - going online. Online or virtual concerts might not be the preferred method, and fans would like to see the stars in person, but it is a viable platform and one that can be used by the biggest K-pop acts to make a lot of money. Western artists can see this already in play. Artists like Chris Martin, Yungblud, and John Legend did online concerts to great success. Yungblud held a concert online for his fans, following the cancellation of his Asia tour. In the performance, he racked up 357,531 views, a figure 210 times higher than the combined average of attendees that had planned on seeing him in Asia. These virtual concerts are streamed on various social media platforms such as Facebook and Instagram as well as on video streaming platforms such as YouTube and Twitch.
The pandemic has incited an explosion in Livestream mini-concerts and DJ sets, hosted by artists on their social media feeds, and often announced at the drop of a hat. John Legend and his wife, Chrissy Teigen, hung out on Instagram for an hour on March 18, with Legend playing fans’ song requests. Elton John hosted a benefit concert with iHeartRadio on March 30, with artists including Billie Eilish, Billie Joe Armstrong, and Dave Grohl all performing from their homes. And DJ Derrick “D-Nice” Jones hosts “Club Quarantine” on Instagram Live. This at-home, one-man, disco-dripping dance party has amassed a large following and has won him the title of an “unlikely coronavirus hero” from the Los Angeles Times.
These concerts and artists went all out with light sticks and real-time comments doing their best to make the online concert experience replicate the real thing as much as possible. The band SuperM performed their new song Tiger to an empty audience, in which a virtual audience from around the world replaced a live one. They took questions from their viewers, giving fans more value for their virtual concert tickets. This specific concert pulled in people from over 109 countries and more than 75k tickets sold. These concerts surprisingly earned more profit for them than their live concerts.
The primary reason why virtual concerts outpace their offline counterparts is the endless audience room and the accessibility to the event as there is no limit to how many people can fit in the stadium or venue. The number of people in the audience of these virtual concerts is much more than what it would’ve been in real life. With the world situation as it is, they may be too pricey for some. The reason isn’t because of the price point but because many people can’t work during this time and that limits people from spending, in turn, restricting the entertainment. The money crunch, however, is very understandable
What I find most compelling about these virtual concerts is how intimate they seem, and how they allow us to feel an overwhelming connection to the music. These are all worth watching. These virtual concerts are something else, and allow you to see musicians in a different light. Because they are not on stage, they seem more like the rest of us, just doing their part to help us get through this difficult patch. We can see the expressions on their faces, of ecstasy or sorrow as they play specific passages. Look, and listen, for instance, to Yo-Yo Ma, who has been posting regularly. These concerts infuse a sense of joy and surprise that even live ones can’t match.
This pandemic is driving the culture back to the popular old school drive-in theatres as well. One such drive-through is called park DONG-JU’S drive-in cinema where people can enjoy the movie in their cars while maintaining social distancing. Entertainment and businesses are getting creative. Partying, on the other hand, will and has gone through a very drastic transformation. In the Doornrsooje area of Netherlands, clubbers have to book a show in advance, in the afternoon. During the electronic music performance, they enjoy the beats playing in the room while restricted to a chair.
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