Harry Styles

• One recent case involved liquid being thrown on stage during a performance by American rapper Cardi B.
• Media accounts suggest the incident has resulted in a police complaint filed by someone in the audience.

Why has concert etiquette been forgotten?

• “Have you noticed how people are, like, forgetting fucking show etiquette at the moment?” pointed out singer Adele recently.
• Some scholars see this trend as a consequence of the suspension of live performances during COVID-19.
• The idea being that audiences – particularly those made up of large crowds – are out of practice when it comes to concert etiquette.

Throwing things historically

• Whether a bouquet of flowers tossed to an opera singer to communicate delight at their performance or a story of rotten fruit hurled at performers to convey disdain at a disastrous opening night, history shows throwing things at live performances is nothing new.
• Just as the social status of musicians has changed over time (in the late 18th century top-rank musicians gradually transitioned from servants to celebrities), so too has concert etiquette.
• Concert etiquette is a manifestation of the social contracts that exist between musicians and their audiences.

Flowers and souvenirs and mania

• In the same way, throwing items like flowers, love notes and handkerchiefs at musicians, in some settings at least, has transitioned from aberrant to ordinary.
• Some 180 years before fans were casting flowers at Harry Styles, the composer and pianist Franz Liszt was the object of fanatical adoration.
• His 1841-42 tour of Germany saw crowds of mostly women shower him with flowers and other tokens, scramble for souvenirs, and throw themselves at his feet.

Changing concert etiquette

• Musicians can be agents of change in relation to concert etiquette.
• Jones explains that a newspaper report, combined with his “leaning in” to the audience behaviour, created a phenomenon.
• Recent research reveals a strict etiquette tied to this practice, founded on community and safety.
• Finally, no concert etiquette ever permits throwing something hazardous or throwing something with the intent to harm.