Back in the day, concerts were accessible, popular. Nowadays however, it feels like you have to pull out a mortgage just to see one. With the way social media has blown up going to gigs, it’s more of a competition than just a night out with your mates. You have to find the perfect outfit that goes with the artist and their current theme and album as well as get the perfect pictures and fit in with the aesthetic of their genre whether that’s soft, punk, rock etc. It’s left a lot of people wondering what happened to the jeans and a t-shirt and a night of dancing. No phones. No social media. Just a proper good time. 

Me: “So what was it like going to gigs in the 90s? Was it majorly different to now or did it still have the same pressure?”

Interviewee 5: “No no not at all. It was a piss up really. It didn’t matter who you went to see, you had pint after pint, maybe the occasional pill back in our day, but no one cared what you looked like. It was about having a good time with music and being off your tits really. And we paid half the price to have 10 times the fun than you lot in my opinion. Don’t get me wrong I know with inflation and everything money when I was growing up was worth more than it is now but even then we didn’t pay nearly as much.”

If you did do a deep dive into the music and gig-going side of social media, you’d also find that the pressure to have a perfect concert isn’t just on listeners. It’s on the musicians too. A popular idea on TikTok as we speak - read in your case - is that people miss when musicians were ‘hungry’. Most videos under this showcase huge artists like Michael Jackson, Ozzy Osborne, Amy Winehouse etc. Those were the artists that the music industry today is built on really. Just a shittier version. Back in their prime, everyone was off their face and wanted nothing more than to give their all at a gig. They were mental. I mean even now when ‘older’ (proper) artists go back on tour for a last bash, things get way more mental than most modern gigs. Take the AC/DC gig in Melbourne, 2025 for example. Thunderstruck had the crowd going that mental the vibrations in the ground qualified as an actual earthquake that travelled 3.5km around the perimeter of the venue. It absolutely blew up on social media with people saying “a proper concert” , “that’s real rocknroll” , it just went on really. Proper. To compare that to a £600 concert ticket bought just because they’re trending on social media and you know one song is devastating really. Music is quite literally losing its authenticity. 

Me: “You both said one of your biggest FOMOs is not being born in the 70s/80s period, what is it that you do feel like you missed out on?”

Interviewee 2: “Honestly I think I’m more jealous of how unbothered that generation seems. Like now when you go to a concert even if it’s a small artist, all you can usually see is phones. It’s not that keeping the memory is a bad thing, it’s something we all do but it’s just the feeling of having to not look crazy or sing too loud because you get dirty looked for ruining someone’s video do you get me like people care so much about posting it on social media that it means you can’t even enjoy the gig yourself.”

Interviewee 3: “yea I mean I went to Billie Eilish at Manchester last year and this girl behind me was literally leaning over me with her phone so she could get a better video. I couldn’t even sway. Don’t get me wrong, obviously it’s not gonna be the type of music where you jump around but I was scared to even sing because I didn’t wanna be heard in her video. It just kinda ruined the vibe of the night for me. It’s shit when you go see an artist you relate to but can’t just be in your feels about it without having some random person’s camera shoved in your face. That generation could just be in their feels if they wanted to. Like they could feel the music.”

After speaking to a few old souled people my own age (late teen years-early 20s), it also came about that people also just miss artists. Being a gen z and having your favourite artist pass before you could even walk is just a shit feeling. You know you’re never going to get to see them live and you have to just kind of sit with it and low key resent the fact that older people could’ve if they wanted to. 

Interviewee 8: “Stone Roses for me. One of the best indie bands of all time. I mean they’re literally the reason Oasis exists now. Their one album is the best thing I listen to on a daily basis. And knowing that I’m never gonna see ‘em is shit. There’s no other word for it. I would kill to go back in time to see them. I mean at least with some artists there’s footage out there of them live. But you weren’t allowed cameras in a Roses gig. So all you have really is whatever people managed to sneak in back in the day which is barely anything really. If you’re a Roses fan you’ve just gotta watch Spike Island and pretend really - great film by the way.”

Other people have said similar things on social media, which seems to be quite the outlet for our generation, especially when it comes to music. But there’s so many posts about the love-hate relationship of having a favourite artist who isn’t ever going to go on tour or make any new music ever again. Devastating is the only word. 

The only thing left to say really would simply be, bring proper gigs and artists back, the people are quite literally begging. Or at least the ones I’ve spoken to anyway.