Who had it better?: concert culture across three generations
By Gabriella Collin
Concerts: $25 tickets, crowd surfing, $15 shirts and recurring national tours.
No, that doesn’t sound right.
While the older generations adjust their buckles and sit back, they chastise Generation Z for our technology habits, financial struggles, and poor taste in musicians. Every decade, the generations before our own have echoed the same idea; “We had x y z artists, so we had it better.” True or not, when I look around at my peers, while we kill time exchanging music tastes, there’s a sense of disillusionment. For contemporary artists, I hear one of two things. One, “Well, they’re pretty new. I wouldn’t expect you to know them.” And two, “They’re popular now, but I was listening to them before [insert song] went viral on TikTok.” It’s hard to get the older generations to take us seriously as is. Add to that a social media machine with an algorithm that pumps out chart toppers from artists with zero credibility, and I can understand why people our age are so quick to clarify that they “aren’t like other fans.”
Concerts: $150 tickets, sexual assault, $80 hoodies and mass tramplings.
That’s more like it.
When it comes to Gen Z musicians, meaning artists between the ages of 24 and 18, I look around and I think, “Who are you people?” Olivia Rodrigo, Billie Eillish, Clairo; it must mean something that some of the biggest names in Gen Z music are women. But this point falls flat when you’re at the dinner table, trying to explain to your elderly aunt why Taylor Swift’s tickets are so expensive. You don’t really know why either. If a Gen Z artist gets too popular, if their music leaves their niche before it’s ready, it’s ripped apart by critics and fans alike.
“Billie Eilish makes alternative-pop? Fiona Apple was doing that in the 90s.”
“Olivia Rodrigo is the pop-punk queen? She completely ripped off Avril Levigne.”
“Doja Cat’s current rebrand? Missy Elliot did it first, and did it better.”
Maybe the masses of Millennials posting about T-Pain and Three Six Mafia in throwback sketches highlighting the cringe of their childhoods is supposed to be comforting. If our high school professors and 2000s-cringe baiters on TikTok can look back on their middle school years and laugh, why can’t we? The problem is, the nostalgia-worthy artists that previous generations look at with fondness often end up being pioneers, or creators of their respective genres.
It’s becoming harder and harder to advocate for the music of Gen Z, when the ability to see live music has become so inaccessible. Tickets for the US run of Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour resided in the upper-triple, lower quadruple-digit numbers. Being a Gen Zer and proclaiming that you would never sink that much money into an artist did little to distinguish you from the people who did. Besides, who are we trying to fool anyways? Today, tickets to Woodstock ‘69 would have been $140, and people camped out at the festival grounds for the entire run. Across generations, one thing remains that same, and that’s the passion people have for the artists they care about. Every time the Made In America festival graces Philadelphia, I tell myself that “this year will be different.” It never is, but the promise of seeing the artists I idolize, in one field, almost justifies the price.
Before you let one more parent, grandparent, or bitter Facebook post tell you that Gen Z music isn’t worth the hype, remember that it’s coming from a place of love. Not love for us, but love for the time their favorite artists spent in the spotlight. Whether it’s your dad showing you his record collection, telling you how cheap it all was, or your eccentric aunt who saw “everyone” when she was your age, everybody is scared to admit that their treasured artist’s time has passed. The truth is that if you keep playing their music, saying their name, admiring old concert footage, it will always be [insert artist]’s time. You just have to decide for yourself.