A concert of phones?

Popular K-pop girl band Blackpink performed two shows in Singapore this year. Despite the sweltering heat, approximately 50,000 fans of Blackpink (known as Blinks) queued from the early hours of the morning, anticipating the quartet’s performance with bated breath. The group finally performed in Singapore after four years.

Unfortunately, fans in the standing pen were met with a sea of phones instead, leaving them with a less than desirable experience.

A viral TikTok video posted by user @trixl4uu showed a concert-goer asking a fellow concert-goer to put down his hand-held fan as it was blocking the views of others in the standing-pen. Other such videos have surfaced on social media, complaining about the sea of handphones blocking the view of the band. “I was in the VIP pen and it was so disappointing to see more phones recording than people waving their lightsticks even though most if not all of them had it,” said user @1XGrey on Reddit. The sea of phones did not go unnoticed to Blackpink member Jennie, who called it out during the performance. “I must say, I’m seeing more cellphones than faces today. I don’t know if I like that. For the last two songs, I want everyone to connect and interact with us, and sing and dance and just party, ok?” Seated concert-goer, Z, explained: “I think, one of the reasons why so many phones were up was because they were watching the concert through their phones. They were so squished and had no space to turn or look at the screen or stage properly. It started off with people in front recording, then it just cascaded when everyone started blocking each other’s view.”

Some fans commented that filming should be banned from future concerts in order to make the overall experience an enjoyable one for everyone. “I was lucky during my Girls Generation concert days, no filming was allowed and I saw the full band,” said one TikTok commenter.

Others were okay with filming sections of the concert for a keepsake, but not the entire show. “Best one was IU when she dedicated one segment just for you to record. I went to BTOB’s concert in Korea last year. While there were people with phones up to record, a lot actually still enjoyed the show with screaming, singing, and fanchants. Overall a good experience although the phones were up,” said Reddit user @Dramaish.

This behaviour is not unique to Singapore. The same smartphone situation can be seen across multiple concerts - Hammersonic in Jakarta, and even Maho Rasop in Bangkok. In this digital age, we have to accept that part of the concert experience is to record and share the times with friends.