In some of our in-class discussions, the topic of snapchat (or any type of video recording) during concerts has come up. I for one am guilty of going to many concerts and posting the performances of my favorite songs on my snapchat or other forms of social media for my followers to see. Interestingly, when I see other people's seemingly excessive posts of their own personal concert experiences on their social media accounts, I always seem to skip past them. So why do we do this? I'm not sure why it is that we so often choose not to live in the moment, in hopes that the experience will be the same when we watch our videos at a later time, but after going to my favorite rapper/singer Childish Gambino's concert last year, I got a whole new perspective on why it's more important to simply be in the moment and experience everything around you without broadcasting it to everyone else.
After disappearing from the media for almost 3 years, Childish Gambino (Donald Glover) tweeted to the world that he would be creating an experience for his fans that would consist of 6 small-scale shows in one weekend (but you could only choose one) which would be his only live performances in 2016. Given that it would fall on my birthday weekend I immediately decided I couldn't miss out on this opportunity and simultaneously convinced my best friend to make the weekend trip to Joshua Tree, California with me. Upon purchase, Gambino didn't release very much information about the event except the app you needed to get in, the location of the event, a message for concert-goers to wear the color blue and the fact that he would be performing his entire upcoming album that wasn't going to be released until 3 months after the concert titled Awaken, My Love. When September 3rd finally arrived we made the 9 hour trip to California with no idea of what to expect that night. Upon arriving at Joshua Tree National Park where the concert was held we checked in and explored the grounds. There were many tents set up where some people chose to spend the night (you had to be 21 so I didn't get to do that), food trucks, merchandise tents, a movie screen where he would be premiering his new show Atlanta to all concert-goers, and a huge white dome in the middle of it all which is where the concert itself would be. There were rumors circulating throughout the grounds that no phones were allowed in the dome, but I wasn't completely sure how that was going to work until much later that night.
We ended up standing in line for 3 hours before our show was scheduled to begin so we could be front row, talking to people from all over the country who had traveled here just like us for this new kind of concert experience, until it was finally time to go in. Before we were allowed entrance to the dome itself, two levels of security patted everyone down and required you to give them your phone and any other small personal belongings which they would then lock in a small magnetic bag that you could hold on to, but there was really no way to open it until you left after the performance. Initially, I was pretty bummed because I was about to be front row for one of my favorite artists and had no way to document it for everyone else to see. However in hindsight, the fact that Gambino forced us to be in the moment is what made the concert that much better. During the performance, the dome had the feel of a planetarium with images being projected all around which made it a very visual experience and important for concert-goers to simply be in the moment and take in everything around you. It was also neat to look around and only see other people's hands in the air dancing to the music without any phones. At any other concert, you're surrounded by hands holding their glowing phone screens, but obviously here that wasn't possible. The main reason behind this was probably because he didn't want anyone to leak his new music (even though I heard a few people here and there managed to cut their phones out of their bags somehow to try to capture videos without getting caught by security) but nonetheless, being able to experience the music without constantly checking my phone every 10 seconds and worrying if my snapchat was going to post and seeing everyone else around me simply vibe to the music was a different experience than any other concert I've been to before.
After the concert, all the people we had met before the performance met back up together to discuss what we had experienced. We all talked about how we wished we could've been able to take pictures and videos of everything we experienced to show everyone we knew, but realized that if we had access to our mobile devices, the 2 hour concert would not have had the same effect. From the visuals projected on the dome around us, to all the different instruments, and bright, colorful tribal outfits worn on stage, none of these things would've had the same effect on us if we had all been staring at our phones. Therefore, looking back this atmosphere Childish Gambino created was kind of genius in the fact that this was something completely unheard of for an artist of his magnitude, especially that of a rapper who used to be very social media present. Forcing fans to simply be in the moment is something I feel like more artists should do in the future, in order for their fans to get the full effect of the music that they work so hard to create.
That being said, when I have gone to concerts since then, I think of how much better the experience was when I wasn't more focused on a little handheld screen rather than what was happening right before my eyes. What is also neat, is that Childish Gambino did release a 360 degree VR experience of his opening song for anyone to watch through the PHAROS app that he released alongside with the concert, so that people who went can relive at least some of their experience and for anyone who was unable to go to get a glimpse into what PHAROS was like. Another cool thing I realized about the VR experience is when you turn the "camera" to look at the crowd you can see that not one person has a phone in their hand and all eyes are fixated on the artist himself.
Popular music and fashion website "TheFADER" released a few articles giving further insight on their experience of the concert and the atmosphere which are linked here:
\http://www.thefader.com/2016/09/07/childish-gambino-pharos-festival-review-donald-glover
http://www.thefader.com/2016/09/07/childish-gambino-pharos-photos
And there is also a youtube video I found for easier access to the 360 degree VR experience (video works best through smartphones) as well here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=coWcTgU5PZ4
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