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Cell Phone Concert Craze
An appropriate time to ask, "Can you hear me now?" might be during a 115-decibel concert.
But concertgoers aren't pulling out their phones to chat during shows. Instead, they're pointing them away from their ears and toward the stage, as they did at a recent stop on U2's Vertigo 2005 tour.
According to one review, as the band launched into the hit ballad "One," the stadium filled with the soft blue glow of the phones' displays. Bono urged the crowd, with the help of video displays, to text message for information from the One Campaign (www.one.org) to raise awareness about global poverty and AIDS.
The phenomenon was repeated last Wednesday at Madison Square Garden as Simon LeBon, front man for '80s pop group Duran Duran, urged the crowd to take out cell phones and lighters before launching into "Save a Prayer."
"It makes it look like the stars at night," LeBon said of the glow. "And it makes you all look so much more beautiful."
Tom Ryan, senior vice president of mobile and digital development at EMI music, explained why people take out their phones even when Bono and LeBon aren't telling them to.
"The phone in general is being used as a method of sharing the unique [concert] experience," he said.
For instance, Ryan said someone at a Coldplay show could call a friend, let the friend hear a song, and then snap a shot of the band and message them the picture.
That's not the only reason phones are being thrust into the air, though.
"Twenty years ago, everyone was carrying a lighter," Ryan said. "You could express yourself with it."
Incidentally a recent article in The Charlotte Observer claimed the lighter trend began because of Astoria native Melanie Safka, when the legendary singer/songwriter played her hit "Lay Down (Candles in the Rain)" at Woodstock in 1969 and the crowd started holding up candles. Within a few years, the trend caught fire, and concert crowds everywhere began showing support with tiny butane flames.
Smoking isn't socially acceptable anymore, making lighters scarce - and phones an obvious alternative.
"It's the thing you've got in your pocket," Ryan said.
In a dark concert hall or arena, he said, the display screen on a cell phone creates a glow like a lighter, "especially when 20,000 people are holding them up."
Phone manufacturers are taking advantage of the activity, creating new features.
Keith Nowak, a spokesman for cell phone manufacturer Nokia, said the company has developed a cover with light-emitting diodes installed in it.
"You can wave it and leave a message in the air," he said. "It ends up looking kind of like skywriting. It's flashing so rapidly, the pattern stays stuck in your eyes."
In other words, the next catchphrase might be, "Can you see me now?"
- ANDY RATHBUN
--Newsday
An appropriate time to ask, "Can you hear me now?" might be during a 115-decibel concert.
But concertgoers aren't pulling out their phones to chat during shows. Instead, they're pointing them away from their ears and toward the stage, as they did at a recent stop on U2's Vertigo 2005 tour.
According to one review, as the band launched into the hit ballad "One," the stadium filled with the soft blue glow of the phones' displays. Bono urged the crowd, with the help of video displays, to text message for information from the One Campaign (www.one.org) to raise awareness about global poverty and AIDS.
The phenomenon was repeated last Wednesday at Madison Square Garden as Simon LeBon, front man for '80s pop group Duran Duran, urged the crowd to take out cell phones and lighters before launching into "Save a Prayer."
"It makes it look like the stars at night," LeBon said of the glow. "And it makes you all look so much more beautiful."
Tom Ryan, senior vice president of mobile and digital development at EMI music, explained why people take out their phones even when Bono and LeBon aren't telling them to.
"The phone in general is being used as a method of sharing the unique [concert] experience," he said.
For instance, Ryan said someone at a Coldplay show could call a friend, let the friend hear a song, and then snap a shot of the band and message them the picture.
That's not the only reason phones are being thrust into the air, though.
"Twenty years ago, everyone was carrying a lighter," Ryan said. "You could express yourself with it."
Incidentally a recent article in The Charlotte Observer claimed the lighter trend began because of Astoria native Melanie Safka, when the legendary singer/songwriter played her hit "Lay Down (Candles in the Rain)" at Woodstock in 1969 and the crowd started holding up candles. Within a few years, the trend caught fire, and concert crowds everywhere began showing support with tiny butane flames.
Smoking isn't socially acceptable anymore, making lighters scarce - and phones an obvious alternative.
"It's the thing you've got in your pocket," Ryan said.
In a dark concert hall or arena, he said, the display screen on a cell phone creates a glow like a lighter, "especially when 20,000 people are holding them up."
Phone manufacturers are taking advantage of the activity, creating new features.
Keith Nowak, a spokesman for cell phone manufacturer Nokia, said the company has developed a cover with light-emitting diodes installed in it.
"You can wave it and leave a message in the air," he said. "It ends up looking kind of like skywriting. It's flashing so rapidly, the pattern stays stuck in your eyes."
In other words, the next catchphrase might be, "Can you see me now?"
- ANDY RATHBUN
--Newsday
