Sorry Jack White: There Is Nothing Wrong With People Using Phones At Gigs
Restricting audience members' freedom isn't rock and roll, it's the opposite.
Ahead of their forthcoming Australian tour, rock supergroup The Raconteurs have fixed their sights on an old foe: mobile phones at gigs.
A statement released today by the Jack White-led band hit all of the old talking points, stringing out a time-worn argument with all the creaky inevitability that defines any criticism of progress. “We think you’ll enjoy looking up from your gadgets for a little while and experience music and our shared love of it IN PERSON,” the statement reads.
“For those looking to do some social media postings, let us help you with that. Our official tour photographer will be posting photos and videos after the show on [Instagram.]”
It’s not the first time that a rock band has waged such a war — or even the first time White has. The noted curmudgeon has spent years railing against audiences documenting gigs with their phones, arguing that devices destroy the sanctity of a natural, human experience like standing in a crowded room and watching a bunch of humans play rockstar from afar.
Jack White is physically banning the use of mobile phones at his shows. You have to put your phone into a pouch and be locked or refused entry. It works as the photos show. Madness. What if there was an emergency? pic.twitter.com/rmChN88s77
— Anthony (@ant_917) October 18, 2018
Indeed, White’s not the exception to the rule — he is the rule. Everyone from Dave Grohl to Disturbed’s David Draiman has tried and failed to disconnect punters from their mobile phones. For such performers, phones aren’t a natural extension of the human experience — they are an impediment to it, mood-destroying distractions that symbolise humanity’s profound alienation from reality…or some Boomer bullshit like that.
But such criticisms are deeply unfounded. The arguments of White and his small army of filthy rich musicians are based on the assumption that punters stand at a gig they have paid upwards of $100 to attend with a phone plastered in front of their faces the entire time.
This is incorrect. No human being takes out the mortgage on their house required to watch entitled millionaires smash instruments only to stand there for an hour and a half checking their phone. If punters do snap a couple of pictures, they do so quickly, for, at best, one or two songs. And, more than that, these punters are unfailingly respectful. They turn off their flash. They make sure they are not blocking someone’s view. And then they go back to watching the show.
Such snapping isn’t an impediment to the human experience. It is part of it. For hundreds upon hundreds of years, music has served a deeply social purpose. The origins of melody and songwriting aren’t based on restrictive and expensive experiences like the modern rock gig, or overpriced merch, or VIP Platinum Ticket packages.
They are based on music’s ability to be shared; to bring people together. Taking photographs and short videos and sharing them with others on social media is, in the deepest sense, what music is about.
Can we shut the fuck up already about people using their phones at gigs?
— Rebūke (@rebukemusic) January 26, 2019
And anyway, offering punters the use of an official photographer’s service is based on a fundamental misunderstanding of why people take photographs at gigs. iPhones are no match for the darkened auditoriums most modern gigs take place in. Punters know this. They understand that their snaps come out blurry, and weirdly lit, and transform most musicians into light-dappled specks.
If something goes wrong in the crowd, having your phone locked away from you is not only inconvenient — it’s dangerous.
Nobody thinks that they’re going to take a photo to be hung on a wall. They take a photo for themselves; they take a photo that is their own. Snapping a blurry image of Jack White isn’t about documenting White himself; it’s about documenting the feeling of watching Jack White. About capturing one’s own personal experience — about paying tribute to the experience of being an observer, and having a deep, personal connection with a song, and with a moment.
Apart from all of this, there’s also the very real issue of safety. Harassment and violence at gigs is, unfortunately, something that a lot of us (in particular, women) will encounter in our lives. In recent years, a number of artists, festivals, and venues have implemented safety hotlines in order to ensure that punters feel safe at their gigs. If something goes wrong in the crowd, having your phone locked away from you is not only inconvenient — it’s dangerous.
If rockstars like White were really against artificial and exclusionary experiences — if they wanted to provide a personal, natural experience — they’d tour parks and public spaces; they wouldn’t charge a dime, and they’d let punters do whatever the fuck they want. Restricting audience members’ freedom isn’t rock and roll, it’s the opposite.