Cell Phones at Concerts

Have you ever been to a concert and all you can see is the glowing screen of the person in front of you? Yes, me too. It is very distracting to be a concert goer and all you see are the screens in front of you. At PlugOut, we think it is equally frustrating for the performer. Instead of having a sea of faces looking at them and enjoying their music, they have a crowd of distracted people. These people are either messing with their phones or watching the concert through the screen of a smart phone. I don't know about you, but I have taken a video with my phone at a concert.  The quality of the video is so poor, it isn't something that I will ever go back and watch again. I have read about artists who are starting to speak out about concert cell phone use. Some of these frustrated musicians are more vocal than others. The Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Jack White, Katy Perry, She & Him, and Cyndi Lauper are some of the more outspoken ones. Here's an article from CNN Tech highlighting the Yeah Yeah Yeah's.

After seeing many articles written up about concert cell phone use, the PlugOut team decided to start contacting bands. We sent out approximately 150+ emails to bands and musicians. We asked them to respond via email if they are interested in our message. So far, we have gotten 5 responses back from band agents. We sent our hats, t-shirts and press release to the bands who have gotten back to us. We figured it was worth a shot and it would be incredible if one of the bands would wear one of our shirts at a concert. This got us thinking about the idea of "keeping life hands-free". Now we are looking into doing a t-shirt with this message and maybe an outline of a concert crowd with the audience's hands up in the air. We are hoping to have a few design options and are planning on posting them on our social media,  asking our followers for their feedback.

I would love to hear from our readers. Do you have a story about cell phone use at a music concert or show?  - Gilly Hegenbart

Photo by Whateverthing