Home to many of the music industry鈥檚 greatest stars, such as Grateful Dead and Tupac Shakur, the Bay Area is a hotspot for live music. Concert attendance jumped after the pandemic, with LiveNation estimating a 24% increase from 2021 to 2022 nationwide. With young people leading the charge, social media has fueled live music鈥檚 rising popularity.
Junior Jacob Suh, who recently attended the It鈥檚 All a Blur Tour headlining rappers Drake and 21 Savage, sees a direct connection between people鈥檚 posts on the internet and others鈥 desire to attend concerts. 鈥淲hen they see multiple posts about certain concerts, it鈥檒l make (them) want to go to join in 鈥 be within the status quo,鈥 he said. 鈥(Being able to) post can be a big part of why (someone) goes to a concert.鈥
As an avid concertgoer, sophomore Gwen Domine sees this newfound interest in concerts as a product of a viral trend. 鈥(Taylor Swift鈥檚) Eras Tour became such a trend on social media this summer that all of a sudden, everybody wanted to go,鈥 she said. 鈥淪ocial media kind of blew the whole thing up even more.鈥
Senior Siena Tacy also watched the Eras Tour blow up on social media. She, however, attributes this boom to a resurrection of 鈥2010s fangirl culture鈥 and believes the movement is only amplified by social media. 鈥淔angirl culture is this obsessive culture that comes with big obsessions with artists,鈥 Tacy said. 鈥淧eople think that, somehow, they鈥檙e connected to these artists and that they would look at them differently.鈥