The dance floor is disappearing in a sea of phones(bloomberg.com) |
The dance floor is disappearing in a sea of phones(bloomberg.com) |
on both music fests, I was in flow. I've been dancing - it's a usual thing all humans naturally do when they hear rhythm that resonates with them unless they consciously resist dancing for one reason or another. though, this time, no one joined me. people just made space around me and pointed their cameras at me, which created a ton of unease and I eventually stopped. it was enough to get viral in local Telegrams, but I had no joy in that. in the moment, I wanted to shout, "duh, why aren't you all dancing? put down your goddamn cameras, you can always scroll later!"
phones, primarily due to their current addictive implementation, are such a killjoy. I hope that one day, devices like Clicks Communicator will change this.
I also don't really understand what the point of constantly filming is. Some groups regularly put high-quality concerts on Youtube [1], so if you want to re-experience a similar concert afterwards you can.
I guess it's more about documenting your life's story on socials. But what's the point of documenting the life that you don't really live?
Some artists (e.g. John Zorn) forbid filming, which is IMO the best way to go. It's all about experiencing it in the moment.
[1] Bands like King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard even put pretty much every concert online now in full 4K, professionally filmed glory.
When I went to concerts it was heavy metal.
No one was dancing. Unless you consider banging heads a form of dancing. People did sing along though.
Last concerts I went to (respectively 2019 and 2024, I don't go to many concerts nowadays) people mostly behaved as they did in the past. Only a few were filming the concert with their cellphones, but this was definitely the minority.
I don't live in the US. Maybe this is a bit of cultural differences in terms of geography and in terms of demographic for the genre?
I certainly would. It's just the style of dancing with heavy metal.
> No one was dancing. Unless you consider banging heads a form of dancing. People did sing along though.
my point is that people were engaging and interacting with and within music, not observing and recording it for the sake of internet points. so, yeah, in this context...
> banging heads
...is definitely a form of "dancing" :D
I mostly went to EDM, raves, and pop concerts. there, dancing is a lot more appropriate and welcome :)
> I don't live in the US. Maybe this is a bit of cultural differences in terms of geography and in terms of demographic for the genre?
me neither, but I observed this in Ukraine and (through friends and acquaintances) Poland, US, and Russia. something definitely shifted
But man that sucks, there should be a phone free zone in the concert.
> More clubs have also been instituting “no phones” policies to reclaim the dance floor’s social energy. Venues including Signal, a small club that opened last year in Brooklyn’s East Williamsburg neighborhood, and recent addition Refuge, located just around the corner, cover all phone cameras with a sticker. Other larger, established venues like House of Yes and Elsewhere have also banned the use of phones inside.
Has become a pest. Even inside. Even directly at or in the water. No matter what the signs say.
At least regarding that I miss the last millennium: no omnipresence of cameras. Not a bunch of entitled pseudo-influencers filming everything and everyone.
That applies whether you're taking your clothes off or just dance.
If there are people filming on their dancefloor you're in a shitty club.
OK, so the author and a handful of people they quite (including some global superstars who obviously don't represent any kind of norm) seem to be finding themselves in shitty clubs more often than they used to. And therefore we conclude all clubs are shitty now?
Nightlife is the least heterogeneous and least globalised form of public life that exists in "the west". If someone thinks they can make sweeping statements about the state of raving writ large, I don't really take them seriously.
Maybe journalism isn't totally dead yet.
The original Bloomberg News was purely financial. They then bought Businessweek and published Bloomberg Businessweek but also leveraged the acquisition to build out their general news under the Bloomberg News banner. They’ve had other acquisitions as well to expand their scope. The one I’m particularly interested in is Citylab which means they have probably some of the best urbanism and housing policy related news coverage.
it never was, nor will ever be :)
now instead of having 10 human agents using 10 human terminals that costs $300k you can have 100 AI agents orchestrated into a single terminal that costs $30k
its especially dead because people can begin to develop macros and tools to create alternatives to their system using raw data models, and filters, as well as machine-tools rather than just using transformer models to process reports
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DBMh48KvHYz/
It is utterly pathetic.
I really love that. It makes parties carefree again because what happens in the club stays in the club. And the people that most applaud it are GenZ, to my suprise.
The camera both removes the person from the scene and also by recording enables the event to be captured in a format to be reviewed again. The videos are never actually intended to be watched again or shared with friends though but they are proof that the person was physically there (if not wholly present).
There was a video I recently saw about how birthday parties should be filmed. Instead of a video of just the birthday girl in front of a cake reacting to her friends singing happy birthday, she takes the camera, flips it so we don't see her anymore but we see her friends singing facing her with faces full of love.
Therefore, not cool to dance anymore. Everyone is too self-conscious.
Nightclub stickers over smartphone rule divides the dancefloor (85 points, 91 comments)
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42352825
I've never understood the appeal of so-called "dance" events.
Crowds of thousands like sardines swaying-at-best to the DJ being treated as a rockstar but without the talent and entertainment as far as I can see.
Note: this isn't a rockist viewpoint; I'm a dancer who is frustrated at the lack of options to actually move about in space on a dancefloor with other dancers who are there to actually, you know, dance.
I hate the way the word has been co-opted by what appears to be a generation of drugged-out sheep who seem incapable of soulful movement.
/s
As for dancing, dancing is for clubs. Clubs are not concert halls. You dance at a club. You watch a show at a hall. Only DJ-types who are confused about whether they are record-spinning robots or stars in a spotlight cannot tell the difference.
But getting lost in music, in a darkened room with some intentionally disorienting VFX; or simply none, loud electronic music in a room with many people is already quite an experience...
that's quite different from being at a festival or at a show like this, which looks more like a musical opera performance to me.
For big room EDM, was there ever a time when it was not about laser shows etc?
I mean there's nothing wrong with stage shows, pop music and lasers.
> “Nobody was asking for the screen to be bigger. Nobody was asking for more production, more lasers. Literally, the number one complaint every year was, ‘Hey, you guys are overselling these shows, we want more room to dance.’”
Whereas the dance scenes I've formerly attended were heavy in drug use but the main thing people are there for is dancing.
Alcohol removed inhibitions and that allowed them to dance.
I don't think this is fun either, no. Definitely not possible to dance. They do have an expensive VIP area with lots of space but there people were just sitting at tables, not dancing either.
But most clubs I go to aren't overfilled like that.
A friend of mine is a professional (modern) dancer, so has as much credentials as you can, and she enjoys dancing in berlins nightlife. She finds the space for expression and creativity in her movement, in tune with the music. Of course, the is not much physical space, which is how the dance-movements evolved as they have (e.g you never spin and you feet never really leave the space they are on). But this is part of the culture, and not a problem. If you can't find it then that's your problem, but doesn't mean that other's can not freely express themselves there.
There's more dance-events. Not sure where you are, but you can usually go to a bachata night as it's quite trendy now, northern soul is also getting some revivial. There's also more disco-oriented events usually at various LGBTQ+-parties, I think especially italo-disco is a lot of fun. You can just go out and dance. Lindy Hop also has a solid community around the world.
Btw I've seen great dancers who barely move their feet; my concern is with the culture where individual expression is subordinated to the cult of commune and the DJ.
As others here have pointed out that is partly down to the promoters packing in as many people as they can; I think control moving over the years from love of the form to strictly commerce has caused a significant change in culture.
Alternatively, the pit at a metal show is much more than just swaying around.
you don't need to have large human teams reading the terminals anymore. the human headcount required to consume the bloomberg content is shrinking, not the headcount required to create it
Dance isn’t just an art form. It’s also about the commune. It’s also about letting yourself go and sometimes with a DJ or artist to guide the experience.
Sounds like concerts are not a good space for the enjoyment you get out of dance. But it’s a great space for the dance experience many others want.
The next morning no way I would remember rollergirl236_berlin lol
If I am paying $700 to see Lady Gaga you bet your ass I’m taking some pictures.
I actually find k-pop shows somewhat refreshing because there’s zero negative stigma for wanting to record pictures or video. I can easily tell that Gen Z/Alpha has no problem enjoying themselves and even dancing while recording a video.
If a phone is blocking your view the venue is designed wrong, or you have the rare concertgoer who doesn’t know how to hold their phone in a way that preserves the view for others, which is rare for the younger audiences. (I don’t go to venues with flat floors anymore. Often they weren’t even designed for concerts in the first place).
I don’t know why the techno-reactionary assumption is that the kids are just doing it for clout online, or that the kids recording aren’t enjoying themselves in the moment. To me, that viewpoint seems like an unsubstantiated assumption, and an embodiment of the “old man yelling at clouds” meme.
I am fully capable of enjoying myself while recording a video/picture.
You’d be amazed at the kind of video and audio quality modern smartphones are capable of taking in a concert setting. The audio quality might even beat the live experience, especially since I need special earplugs to be able to enjoy most concerts without them being too loud and washed out.
The smartphone doesn’t have the same problems that human ears have.
Modern telephoto lenses and video stabilization are incredible. My phone can literally see the stage better than my eyes can.
WE ALL KNOW THEY WERE THERE!
That's how you sound.
"I've seen this on planet earth"
Afghanistan? China? Tonga?
But it's probably a nightmare from the liability perspective.
If we are asking for impossible things why make it so scifi coded? I would much prefer cute bunny unicorns who suddenly grow fangs and bite people who are taking pictures. They are both equaly realistic but the bunny unicorns are nicer to think of.
Feel sorry for you. Try spending less time in front of the screen.
I feel sorry for you, because it is probably challenging to be so judgmental and supercilious.
No, it's in my nature, it comes without effort.