Concert abuse is a phenomenon attributed to the loss of concert etiquette between the audience and the performer. It has a long history, but experienced a resurgence in the 2020s decade after the COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns were lifted and audiences began to return and attend live concerts again. After social distancing began to dissipate in 2021, multiple performing artists became the victims of fan misbehaviour.
Incidents include the cancellation of a concert and loss of ten lives in two separate events in October and November 2021 at the NRG Arena. Bad fan behaviour has interfered with the performances of artists such as Dua Lipa, Harry Styles, Lady Gaga, Justin Bieber, Coldplay, the Killers, Miley Cyrus, Rubén Albarrán, Gerard Way, Maroon 5, Mac DeMarco, and Rosalía, among others. Artists have criticised fans for their lack of concert etiquette which endangers performers. Billie Eilish, Finneas O'Connell, Jason Derulo, Charlie Puth, Kelly Hansen, Tim McGraw, and John Mayer have all condemned the behaviour.
The occupational hazards of performing on stage have been known since at least the 1760s, with historical spikes increasing in the 1950s. The post-pandemic decline in concert etiquette and rise in concert abuse in the 2020s is variously attributed to the effects of lockdowns, social media, misogyny, status symbolification, and artists' own on-stage behaviour.
Background
Concert audiences have a long history of abuse beginning in at least 1763, when an Artaxerxes audience revolted at the withdrawal of half-price tickets for those who came to the theatre after the main play to see the after-piece. In the 1840s, fans of Hungarian composer Franz Liszt engaged in outrageous behavior known as Lisztomania, which was considered a real contagious medical condition at the time. Audience misbehaviour increased sharply in the 1950s. After George Harrison said that his favourite sweet was jelly babies, audiences threw jelly beans at his band The Beatles; similarly, from 1968 onwards, Tom Jones' audiences threw underwear at him on stage. In 1982, a fan threw a live bat at Ozzy Osbourne on stage, which he, believing it to be made out of rubber, bit the head off of.
Many artists have suffered injury while performing. In 2004, David Bowie had to pause a show after a projectile lollipop hit his eye, and in a separate incident, Dimebag Darrell was killed on-stage by an armed fan. In 2005, Pierre Bouvier was hospitalized after receiving a bottle to the eye at an Ovation Music Festival concert, prompting his band Simple Plan to cancel an appearance at ReAct Now: Music & Relief, and the following year, Brendon Urie was bruised and knocked out by a bottle at Reading Festival, resuming "The Only Difference Between Suicide and Martyrdom Is Press Coverage" after resuming consciousness. In 2010, Tila Tequila received a cut to the face that drew blood while performing at Gathering of the Juggalos, and later had the windows of her SUV smashed by an angry mob. In May 2013, Toots Hibbert commenced a three-year break after developing anxiety, memory loss, headaches, dizziness, enochlophobia, and stage fright after a bottle hit him in the head at an American festival performance, for which the thrower was imprisoned for six months; and in 2016, Christina Grimmie was killed after a concert.
Some artists made interacting with projectiles part of their act. Harry Styles, who had previously had tampons thrown at him while a member of One Direction, and who slipped on a splattered kiwifruit at a November 2017 Hammersmith Apollo concert (which caused a branch of Asda in Hulme to ban sales of kiwifruit to under 25s), would wear feather boas and cowboy hats and wave pride flags thrown by audience members. Meanwhile, artists such as Doja Cat, Olivia Rodrigo, and Billie Eilish would take fans' phones mid-concert and film themselves.