Are You Really There? The Mediatized Experience of the 21st Century Concert-Goer

This thesis focuses on the ways cellphone use has further mediatized the concert experience. The cellphones mediatization of the concert experience involves modifications to memory practices, understandings of the concert experience, and interpersonal interaction within the venue. The combination of a content analysis, participant observation, and interview analysis, examined qualitatively and quantitatively, found that the cellphone has become a standard accessory to concert attendance. Not only has the cellphone become standard, it has forever changed the way we remember and experience concerts. The first set of data included the news coverage of cellphone use during concerts between the years of 2002-2016. The second set of data came from the notes taken during the participant observation of five concerts. The third set of data, the interview analysis, includes 30 concert-goers, five of which were local artists.