The Arena Concert: Music, Media and Mass Entertainment

Description

The Arena Concert: Music, Media and Mass Entertainment is the first sustained engagement with what might said to be - in its melding of concert and gathering, in its evolving relationship with digital and social media, in its delivery of event, experience, technology and star - the art form of the 21st century. This volume offers interviews with key designers, discussions of the practicalities of mounting arena concerts, mixing and performing live to a mass audience, recollections of the giants of late twentieth century music in performance, and critiques of latter-day pretenders to the throne. The authors track the evolution of the arena concert, consider design and architecture, celebrity and fashion, and turn to feminism, ethnographic research, and ideas of humour, liveness and authenticity, in order to explore and frame the arena concert. The arena concert becomes the “real time” centre of a global digital network, and the gig-goer pays not only for an immersion in (and, indeed, role in) its spectacular nature, but also for a close encounter with the performers, in this contained and exalted space. The spectacular nature of the arena concert raises challenges that have yet to be fully technologically overcome, and has given rise to a reinvention of what live music actually means. Love it or loathe it, the arena concert is a major presence in the cultural landscape of the 21st century. This volume finds out why. Cover Half title Title Copyright Contents IllustraTions ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Contributors INTRODUCTION ‘A Stately Pleasure-Dome’? Defining the Arena Concert PART ONE Prehistories CHAPTER ONE From ‘Mach Schau’ to Mock Show: CHAPTER TWO Beyond Beatlemania: Totemic Beatles After the concert: The discursive Shea Beatles fans: Shea as totemic event CHAPTER THREE Through a Lens Darkly: Pictures at an Exhibition Yessongs Live at Pompeii The Wall – Recorded 27 February 1980, Nassau Coliseum Conclusion CHAPTER FOUR: Evolutions of The Wall: Introduction The Wall as intermedial spectacle The Wall live Conclusion PART TWO Arena Concerts Now CHAPTER FIVE From Shed to Venue: Introduction: The arena as a distinct building typology Arenas in the United States: Sports versus entertainment Arena development in the UK The new arena building typology Conclusion CHAPTER SIX Constructing the Cosmopolitan Arena Concert Introduction The concerts’ characteristics The Nobel Peace Prize Concert and its construction A problematic musical construct Conclusion CHAPTER SEVEN ‘Roll Up and Shine’: Planning the show Publicizing the show Producing the show Conclusion CHAPTER EIGHT Being There: PART THREE Perspectives – Personal and Professional CHAPTER NINE ‘Hello Cleveland . . . !’: Jon Stewart Jon Burton Vinnie Lammi Matt McGinn Kieron Pepper Rachel Wood CHAPTER TEN Illuminating Arenas: Bryan Leitch Tom Lesh Davy Sherwin Rob Sinclair CHAPTER ELEVEN A Personal History of UK Arena Concerts: Introduction The Dark Ages Early Arena Rock: Led Zeppelin, Earls Court, London, Saturday 24 May 1975 Rocking a Cattleshed: The Who, Stafford Bingley Hall, 4 October 1975 Thin White Duke: David Bowie, Empire Pool Wembley London, 8 May 1976 A Pilgrimage: Bob Dylan, Earls Court, London, 17 June 1978 Modern Times Vegas comes to London: Barbra Streisand, O2 Arena, London, 18 July 2007 Worshipping at the Shrine: Led Zeppelin, O2 Arena, London, 10 December 2007 Spectacle: Roger Waters, The Wall, Manchester Arena, 21 May 2011 It’s only (corporate) Rock’n’roll: The Rolling Stones, O2 Arena, London, 25 November 2012 Conclusion CHAPTER TWELVE Rocking around Watford: Preface Introduction From Birmingham to Watford Stealing It Back Arctic Monkeys Rock Stage: Evan Shelton Conclusion PART FOUR Arena Media CHAPTER THIRTEEN The Aesthetics of the Arena: Live and Recorded Introduction The topography of the arena The mediated arena The arena concert instinct The arena concert film: Even better than the real thing CHAPTER FOURTEEN We Made This Together: Put that shit away! – the contemporary situation Get excited: Participatory culture and the extension of everyday life Pass the mic: Creating, documenting, sharing Conclusion CHAPTER FIFTEEN Framing Experience: PART FIVE The Arena Experience CHAPTER SIXTEEN ‘Sing It with Me Now’: Audience Participation in Arena Concerts Modes of musical participation Motivations and encouragement – why participate? Important functions of musical participation Potential adverse effects of participatory practice CHAPTER SEVENTEEN Performing Kylie: The theatre of pop Setting the tone Body accoutrements Facing Kylie Periscopic CHAPTER EIGHTEEN Intimacy in Public Sounding out the arena Edward Hall’s social distance Public and the private in the mix The arena space Recording or performance? Conclusion CHAPTER NINETEEN Beyoncé’s Celebrity Feminism and Performances of Female Empowerment in the Arena Concert ‘This perfect, godly woman’ Beyoncé and the live concert experience Beyoncé and celebrity feminism Grown woman: Beyoncé and embodied empowerment CHAPTER TWENTY Intimate Live Girls Intimate with Miley Snogging with tongues Being more closely linked Bibliography INDEX