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is it just me ??? crowds have changed???

#21
I think there are a lot of things at work. Of course location, location, location. Certain crowds at certain places just don't react the same. Difference markets have their own vibe. Could be a US thing too. I just watched some videos of Korn playing in South America and they looked like they were having a good ole time.
The "metal scene" has changed a lot in 10 years. The older crowd, which my band caters to, is...well...older so they show their enthusiasm a little differently. They don't wanna mosh as much because they have to go to work the next day and don't want to explain their bruises to the office. We still get shouts and horns.
Younger crowds are very subdued. They either stand around or try to literally kick the stuffing out of each other. There isn't as much common respect in the pit anymore. And of course they are glued to their phones. As a smaller band, I don't mind it when they shoot videos of us because it is free advertising. Plus, I can post-game my performance.
Things change; whadda gonna do?
 
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#26
IMO, I'd rather deal with the perspective and mindset of this "new Disconnected/Internet Generation" from the stage, than deal with them from the business end of a gun or weapon... or business.. There, the disconnect, I suspect will be sadly more obvious, and... add to rather unfavorable statistics.
If folks didn't give a hoot before, citing examples that include slavery, Native American eradication (for the most part...), and general disdain for other cultures and their own...

Just wait and see what's brewing ... In my humble opinion...

In DC, it's very, very obvious what's to be expected... It's endemic...
("I'm driving a Mercedes, you're driving a Nissan... Get out of my way! I need these two lanes! It's ME after all... ")
It's not me and my family anymore, it's just me... and if I can get it, yours...
(Please, keep your whining and whimpers of suffering to yourself (Yes, I know you've been shot, get over it...), I'm eating... and checking my stock options...)

In my opinion anyway... :)
 
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#27
I definitely blame cell phones plus a combination of millenials/snowflake generations. Since they can't talk to each other (they shouldn't either) they may text by the cellphone to their neighboring friend standing next to him/her. It has changed, I remember German industrial metallists Rammstein at a sold out show in my towns Arena. 15.000 standing room plus seated, sould out. When their lead singer entered the stage he had to furiously wire them up and pep them, because EVERYONE, yes I mean everyone held their cell phones up towards the stage. Their intro was massive and spectacular. You can't applaud with one hand. I was sitting at the back, and all I saw was the backlit display of the cellphones, like they used to light their lighters of concerts past. You know that power-ballad participation. You can't applaud then either, but at least you can sing along. Rammstein doesn't lend itself to singalong though, but moshpit they can very well create.

It has changed. I agree. But I don't think there's anything to do about it, rather, give it up, and just obey. Because anything you would do about it, would only be counterproductive. Remember a concert with Mastodon a few years back at Sweden Rock festival, when they actually from the stage scolded the audience for being lame and lazy, and they were not smoking pot at all in the audience. The audience backfired instead... and the rant went like this:




Pathetic, well, that was the word. And gave us his finger. 2012 it was. Late afternoon, chilly summer. Can't do much about that. That they had a bad day, and very bad sound, the monitoring must've been so poor, that they sang out of key the first half of the set may explain some of it. Maybe then, the audience "showed" the respect they deserved ? ;)
 
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#28
socialleper said:
I think there are a lot of things at work. Of course location, location, location. Certain crowds at certain places just don't react the same. Difference markets have their own vibe. Could be a US thing too. I just watched some videos of Korn playing in South America and they looked like they were having a good ole time.
The "metal scene" has changed a lot in 10 years. The older crowd, which my band caters to, is...well...older so they show their enthusiasm a little differently. They don't wanna mosh as much because they have to go to work the next day and don't want to explain their bruises to the office. We still get shouts and horns.
Younger crowds are very subdued. They either stand around or try to literally kick the stuffing out of each other. There isn't as much common respect in the pit anymore. And of course they are glued to their phones. As a smaller band, I don't mind it when they shoot videos of us because it is free advertising. Plus, I can post-game my performance.
Things change; whadda gonna do?
Click to expand...
Metal audiences are THE BEST audiences IMO... I've played for many biker gangs and they payed well.. and they payed cash usually...
 
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#32
I think I've posted this before in a similar thread.

Over last Christmas, I played with an Elvis impersonator for a couple of private office christmas parties.

At the first one, people were told to hand in their phones at the start of the night.
Some objections, mainly from the younger (20-ish) set, but it was done.
It was a fantastic night, folks up dancing, chatting to each other, nobody worried about what might turn up on facebook the next day to embarass them (and believe me, there was some embarassing moments)
The company CEO, a great-looking woman in her 60's who used to sing professionally, was persuaded to show off a bit and did a version of 'Fever' with just myself and the drummer that still has me grinning happily at how into the song she got...
(Let's just say I am very happy there's no video evidence of that for my wife ever to stumble upon!)

The other two shows? Almost everyone spent most of their nights glued to their damn phones. We did our best, but clearly lost the battle.
A couple of fun moments when a few brave souls got up to dance, but almost immediately got maybe a hundred phone cameras videoing their moves...

I honestly pity these people who can't just enjoy a cool moment for itself without feeling the need to get it on Facebook or snapchat or instagram or whatever...
 
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#39
bassdude51 said:
Absolutely! Welcome to the 21st Century! We have all been "media-ed to death". Facebook, Snapchat, Youtube videos, Pandora, iPods, satellite radio, music down loads...............on and on it goes!

Folks at clubs and music venues don't listen to the music or even watch the show, instead they hold their damn phones up in the air and record it and then send clips to their friends who didn't go while the show is continuing. Geeeezzzzzsssss!

I saw on CBS 60 Minutes that a gold fish now has a longer attention span than a human being. This is true!

Yeah, the crowds have changed!

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Now it's even less than it was in 2013.
Click to expand...
What? I only made it to the third sentence of yo... hold on...OMG LOL...where were we?...
 
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