Cameras and Camera-Phones at gigs

As the internet dominates more and more people’s lives, the camera seems to be used by everyone, everywhere. The worst possible time to use a camera in my opinion is at a gig while you are trying to watch a band you have paid to see.

Websites such as Myspace, Facebook and Youtube are now flooded with peoples gig experiences which is good for them, but at the time a large annoyance for everyone else around. At nine out of ten gigs I attend someone is waving their camera-phone about, blocking my view. This is only something that I’ve noticed in the last couple of years and really gets on my nerves and also spoils the atmosphere of the gig. I‘m also a quite tall person, I dread to think how little someone smaller than me could see when someone’s waving their camera about so they can get a comment on Facebook.

When people film gigs on their cameras it is rarely good quality, infact you can rarely even tell what music is being played adding to the pointlessness of cameras at gigs. Youtube has been swarmed with videos that can be barely made out and have no purpose next to pro-shot footage of professional cameramen.

If it was up to me any amateur cameras would be banned from gigs. If you want to watch a band at home, watch a gig DVD. If you want to look at pictures of a gig, go on a professional website. If you want to take pictures of yourself, get out the venue because that isn’t what live music is for.



Example of Youtube footage
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0WNwcO0EoPU