The Future of Coronavirus Concerts
graphic by alexa kroin
For any readers who have been in a coma since February, we’re currently in the middle of a monster pandemic. COVID-19 has taken so much of what used to be normal away from us. At school, parties, in-person classes, and most social interactions are not at all what they used to be. Tailgates and sports games are gone, and crowded events are ridden with glares between participants that say, “Get the fuck away from me.” Although there’s plenty of things to feel nostalgic about at the moment, the thing that we miss more than ever is concerts. Big ones, small ones, whatever genre, we need them back. But, how have concerts changed during the time of COVID-19, and how long until they can return?
Concerts, like everything else, disappeared back in early March when the coronavirus exponentially took over our entire world. As we were all locked in our houses, musicians did just the same. The closest we got to live music was a live broadcast show online or a Versus Battle. During these weird lockdown era “battles,” two well-known artists, usually rap or RnB, would live stream a “show” on Instagram where they would play their biggest hits, and the fans would decide who won. Today, online shows continue to be the primary method of concerts, and even Juice Jam was online. These were appropriate alternatives to live shows, but watching them in our beds just didn’t hit the same.
Summer came, and the massive tours and festivals were canceled, or sometimes “postponed” for the artists with extra optimism. Some performers started doing drive-in concerts, where audiences could pay for tickets, drive into the show and watch the event from their car. These were functional during the summer, and for many served as a decent substitute as life seemed to move ever so slightly back to normal.
Now, as the temperature drops in most states, outdoor concerts are nearly impossible. Not to mention we’re hitting new highs in COVID-19 cases, so many regulations are coming back or being more strictly enforced. Colorado, a state that had been doing very small, outdoor concerts for some time now, has to stop as spikes continue to happen.
In December, rap group Three 6 Mafia is planning to host a live indoor show at Rupp Arena in Kentucky. The audience will be at 15% occupancy and is being marketed as the first indoor concert since quarantine began. The show has been approved by the Kentucky governor and, if it occurs, could be an indicator if concerts are anywhere in our near future or not.
What may be a less obvious aspect to think about is that certain genres might suffer more from socially distanced concerts than others. Take classical music, for example. Those shows don’t revolve around crowd energy whatsoever. People could be standing inches from each other or sitting 50 feet apart and it probably wouldn’t change the dynamic much at all. Other shows like rap and rock are almost completely derivative of the crowd’s energy. A rap or rock concert without mosh pits, stage diving, and borderline injuries can lose a lot of its appeal. These shows truly won’t return to their true form until regulations are heavily lifted, which could (and probably will), take forever.
COVID-19 has proved to be… unpredictable. In 365 (hell, 730) the world could still be in the same situation, while we miss yet another Juice Jam and reminisce being slammed into other sweaty bodies in a general admission audience. There could also be strong developments that alleviate so much of these feelings, but for now, we just have to wait.