Concerts have become a battleground (and in some cases, a physical one) between fans and artists, as they chafe over who gets to set the rules of engagement and etiquette at events.
Over the weekend, country artist Miranda Lambert came under fire after stopping her song "Tin Man" to call out several concertgoers for taking selfies during the concert.
"I'm gonna stop right here for a second, I'm sorry," Lambert said in a recording of the incident uploaded to TikTok. "These girls are worried about their selfie and not listening to the song. It's pissing me off a little bit."
While some fans cheered for her during the announcement, others appeared to leave, with one voice heard in the video saying, "Let's go, you don't do that to fans." Commenters on the TikTok also debated Lambert's call-out, Insider reported.
In February 2022, Mitski said in a note posted to her Twitter account that fans recording significant portions of her set "makes me feel as though those of us on stage are being taken from and consumed as content," per Slate. Some fans balked at the statement, and the discourse became so intense that Mitski's management team deleted the announcement.
Mitski and Lambert are far from the first artists to critique cell phone use at their shows — see Beyoncé, or Adele, or Jack White. But Lambert's critique comes as artists are suffering an onslaught of very physical attacks during performances. In June, an audience member threw a phone at Bebe Rexha while she was performing; the same happened to Drake and Steve Lacy. Another person appeared to throw their mothers' ashes onstage to Pink later that month.
Concertgoers don't seem content to sit back and watch the show anymore — instead, they seem hellbent on stealing focus from the artist. Getting called out by Miranda Lambert for snapping a selfie isn't quite on par with literal physical assault. But these successive incidents demonstrate a rising tension between artists and fans, and a struggle for control over the concert space.
