The fierce debate over concert etiquette has continued to rage after Rihanna’s enthusiastic dancing at a Mariah Carey concert sparked controversy.
At Mariah’s Here For It All Holiday Special at Dolby Live in Las Vegas, the Umbrella icon was incognito with a baseball cap and an understated outfit.
She was dancing around when a (very confident) member of the public asked her to sit down, with RiRi looking a little shocked.
Our reporter, Brooke Johnson, suggested this was a signal of ‘everything wrong with modern concert going’ as fans put visibility before vibes.
So we put the debate to Metro readers, and the overwhelming feeling was that dancing is absolutely part of the concert experience.
In fact, 45% of you said you’d be ‘dancing your heart out’ at a gig, with standing taking second place at 37%.
Ryane Brennan shared: ‘What’s the point of paying for a concert if all you’re going to do is sit in silence and listen to music. I can do that at home with Spotify.’
‘People are there to dance and have fun. Not to be a party proper and sit around. If that’s all you want to do, stay at home and listen to the music there!’ agreed Rachel Dickey.
‘I wonder how many headbangers were told to sit down at a Motorhead concert,’ Jay Alva added.
‘Stay home if you’re miserable,’ came Tamira Bennett’s cutting reply on Facebook, summarising plenty of other commenters’ opinions.
‘I was at a festival over the summer and was dancing, the girl next to me asked me to stop,’ shared Sam Hall on Reddit.
‘I understand not everyone wants to dance, but if you’re going to complain about people dancing or asking them to stop, maybe stand at the back of the crowd.’
The issue of dancing, and according to some commenters even singing along, is part of a wider growing problem with concert etiquette.
We’re in an epidemic of people of all ages silently filming on their phones, not moving a muscle to get the clearest video to post on social media.
For youngsters, Redditor Scapp pointed out: ‘Gen Z has trauma from having every part of their lives documented and recorded, they are too afraid of being “cringe”.’
For older gig goers, there may be a more physical reason for choosing a seated ticket, which 18% of our poll respondents said they’d opt for.
‘If it’s seated, then that’s what you do, sit! I wouldn’t want to pay to watch someone standing in front of me!’ Lovey Bond-Samways argued.
In another comment, she added: ‘Why do you have to sit in silence! It’s not singing, it’s standing in people’s view that’s the issue!’
This seems to be the crux of the issue, an assumption that if a crowd is seated, it will be ‘a dead crowd’, as one Redditor put it.
However, dancing your heart out is not mutually exclusive with sitting, as anyone with a disability can attest to.
Usually, wheelchair users are able to access a raised platform, so their view is not disrupted when others stand but not all disabilities require a wheelchair.
Some who struggle to stand for long periods of time might opt for general seating instead, which creates a problem if everyone around them stands up.
If you are disabled and someone stands up in front of you, ask if they could sit or even swap seats with you. Venues will usually have contingencies for these instances.
There is no easy solution here, but it comes back to being respectful of those around you, whether they’re seated or standing.
Malachi Gibbs suggested that the anger at Rihanna was due to her potentially standing on her chair rather than just dancing.
We can all agree that she’s far too much of an icon for any potential chair-related injuries, so please, Rihanna, dance your heart out on solid ground.
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