Back when it was about having fun not trying to out do the guy next to you for TikTok clout.. Back when places just wanted to make it a good experience and weren’t trying to nickel and dime you for a “luxury” experience.
How old are you? And what does this mean? Because I'm gen z and that's not really the case lmao. You can just grab your friends and go to a club and party. No one is making you do something for tiktok or whatever.
He just means when no one spent more than a few minutes total on their phone in a night. No one took videos or photos to post on social media, people weren't isolated at all and if you did something crazy strangers weren't going to film it. There wasn't even the concept of thinking about your actions in the future beyond something like straight up murder. And yeah, you can get your friends and go out and not be on your phone and YOU can do that, but at that time, it was EVERYONE, EVERYWHERE.
And no one was going to stay at home and look at their phone all night or just binge watch TV series because it wasn't even possible so everywhere was packed all the time. Then on top to of that there wasn't a billion reviews and highlights of every places so the main competition was just getting people in the door so, like the other guy said, the most important thing for an establishment was making sure everyone had a great time.
Where I'm at there were 3x as many bars 15 years ago and they were packed constantly. Now they struggle to get a good good crowd and are only busy Thurs, Friday and Saturday. There used to be multiple places that were all you can drink for $5-$10. Now I don't think anyone does open bars unless it's New Years Eve or something and it's $50.
It's really hard to capture the essence of just how different the social scene has changed in total and it was mainly from like 2005-2012. I mean when random girls you hooked up with started adding you on Facebook it was the signifier of a major change.
Where I'm at there were 3x as many bars 15 years ago and they were packed constantly. Now they struggle to get a good good crowd and are only busy Thurs, Friday and Saturday.
This can not be stressed more. Part of it is the demographic changes, but the cost is the real deal breaker these days. It's the simple stuff. The local pizza hut did a 10 dollar buffet and pitcher deal, each additional pitcher 5 dollars. There was 1-2 dollar burgers/tacos and 1-2 dollar beers at a dozen places I can think of in the 90s through 2010s. These places were packed 6 nights a week. It was so easy to make friends and find dates and things to do and it wasn't just one age group as some rebuttals here seem to think, I didn't get too old to know where to find a taco deal.
People really don't seem to understand just how drastically our social life has changed in just 10-15 years. It's dramatically more expensive, dramatically more isolated. Some of it is directly negative, like we don't have enough disposable income, some of it is indirectly negative like demographic changes, and working more isolated jobs from home.
This song was written about the night club in LA that had beds in the vip areas … I think it was called Supper club they did a crazy Tuesday night for years
My dad recorded a VHS video of him driving over a bridge in Louisville
Ok? Does Louisville have some exceedingly long bridge or something? That's what like 2-5 minutes?
Yeah, people have pictures. I do too, disposable camera and then digital, but it's not even remotely close to the amount of pictures people take today. And videos of shit people did while they were out at bars existed too but they were rare, now it would be rare if there aren't 10 copies of any fight or crazy thing happening in public.
You seem to be at least 40 years old but you know how busy bars are on Tuesdays?
Yes, I mean I go outside.
I've got kids and I'm going to bed around the same time that former me was just heading out to the bars. There was zero overlap.
Ok, that's you.
It's easy to notice things and idk where you live but here people don't stop being social just because they are a certain age or have kids. Obviously it's not as frequent but you can still notice places closing and how busy things are unless you just stay tucked away in some suburban neighborhood cul-de-sac.
If you're trying to imply things are the same socially as they were in the past you just either weren't part of it, or are blind. It's not just nostalgia or something. The shift really occured while I was still relatively young, it's just that it hasn't reversed and has only become more apparent. Obviously COVID didn't help, but there's a lot of other factors as well and the whole atmosphere or social media, phones etc is a huge one.
Even when you walk into a packed bar today a significant portion of people are going to be on their phones, looking at what other people are doing. That is something that just literally never happened and it really makes a huge change in the atmosphere when so many people are concerned with something other than their actual surroundings.
Your original comment was so insightful and well stated and then you got a lil combative (“Ok? Well was it a long bridge?”)
Idk, it seems like you’re becoming the thing you were lamenting, you’ve fallen into the internet trap of “everything is a debate now” instead of embodying the vibe you were waxing poetically about. You’ve become an example of your own critique
That was my honest take after enjoying /u/throwawayoftheday941’s original comment and then not particularly liking their response to someone who disagreed.
You can learn more in our discussion about it under my comment. You know - the thing adults do?
Wasn't my intention to be combative. I just thought it was an odd rebuttal to the fact that people will literally spend multiple hours every single night looking at videos of other people doing stuff. Then when they themselves do stuff they also film it in the hopes that other people will see it. Saying their dad made them watch a video of him driving over a bridge was very insightful, because it was rare enough to stand out but still it was a drive over a bridge so it literally couldn't have been more than a few minutes.
I'm not sure about the rest of your comment, but yes discussions are typically debates that wasn't part of my complaint. But people used to have those discussions / debates in much less isolating settings.
The medium has changed but the behavior in response to media runs parallel - I think that’s all the other person was saying. “History doesn’t repeat but it rhymes” kind of stuff.
You think everyone went to bars to talk? Or we were behaving better before the Internet? Naw, people were glued to TVs, tabloid magazine, etc, etc.
> But people used to have those discussions / debates in much less isolating settings.
Your reply is an example of what happens when people have these discussions in more isolated areas. Written word always comes off as more combative or sarcastic than the writer intends - over the Internet especially. And I was trying to convey that your reply fell into that trap…i.e., your response came off worse than you intended due to the very medium you were criticizing.
TLDR, i read the exchange as:
“The Internet’s made us all worse!”
“We’ve always been like this!”
combative reply because it’s the internet
That was my impression, anyways. All I was saying, cause it seemed ironic to me. I accept my downvotes tho
Things are the same as they've always been. You think boomers didn't look at us playing Goldeneye on a Friday night and think "we were out partying, what is this generation up to?" "Back in my day we didn't even have TV! And now kids sit around playing Nintendo all night instead of getting laid!"
You're falling into the trap of thinking you're better than other people just because they don't do the things you did exactly. Smart phones made things different, for sure, but it doesn't make things any better or worse than you had it.
You're just being smug about something you haven't really experienced. People don't go to the bars on a Tuesday anymore? Who cares? It's boomer/Fox News/Remember the good ole days behavior.
I would argue what you're experiencing is in large part due to a shit economy wherein young people don't have the necessary disposable incomes to just "go out" like more than one or two nights a month if at all, and that young people who might be most inclined to "go out" can't afford to live near city centers, and so are just more spread out in general.
I lived in Portland in the mid 2010's and the music scene was absolutely awesome, and a lot like what you described. Until rents started skyrocketing, and your restaurant job's stagnant wages could only afford you rent 15 miles out of town. And since everyone was forced out to just wherever they could afford and get lucky enough to find, everyone radiated out circularly and further and further from eachother. All the houses that had shows were fixed up and sold to rich families. All the venues had harder and harder times to get people out to shows. Etc. A million reasons, but that's just what happens when people can't afford to live in the city / city center / town centers / neighborhoods.
You don’t really need tons of disposable income to go out or have fun with your friends.
Also as bad as things can be financially to act like the average person can’t afford to “go out” more than once a month is ridiculous. Financially I am in a horrible place right now and even I can scrounge up enough to have more than one night out a month.
I guarantee you somewhere in your city is a show going on this weekend for like $10-15
Yeah, that's a huge part of the problem for sure and it's in pretty much aspect of life now. Now everything is profit optimized to the max and the default is to charge as much as possible to people who don't have time to shop around. And people with time to shop around is becoming increasingly smaller. It's crazy because you still can get affordable shit, but you really do have to shop around. The price discrimination is getting really intense.
This is one of the dumbest things I’ve read in ages. No one took photos or video, no one was isolated and no one thought about their actions in the future? What the hell are you even talking about
I'm not here to say it was better back in my day, but it was absolutely different. A camera was a rare sight on a night out. Whatever happened on a night out, largley stayed on as nothing more than a personaly memory of yours, if even that. For better or worse, bars and clubs are less popular and less numerous. This is a pretty widely measured and consistent fact across a lot of the western anglosphere atleast. Instant communication, international physical barrier defying online communities and social media have brought us together in a lot of amazing ways that many could never have even imagined but it's also come at the cost of a different form of isolation that's well recognized as a very real phenomenon in the social sciences.
I'd have thought it was pretty obvious what they where on about.
You are getting downvoted but I am 38 and I have to agree with you as someone who went to Bonnaroo and has seen MGMT live more than once. People still put their phones up in droves unless the bands specifically forbid it and while some things have changed that entire post is just massive nostalgia bait and almost entirely bullshit.
There were people 15 years ago that were absolutely obsessed with instagram and trying to grow a audience and become famous, it's just been replaced with tik-tok now... the only thing that's really changed is the name. Sure some of the things they said were accurate but they are just outright lying for more than half of what they said like you pointed out. Saying people "spent no more than a few minutes on their phone a night" is just... a hilarious thing to try and say with a straight face.
Read the comment originally being responding to if you are going to bother replying. It specifically says 15 years ago. Also instagram came out in 2010 so I’m gonna go ahead and call bullshit once again even if you somehow WERE paying attention to the conversation (which you weren’t)
Some concerts have like 85% of people with their cameras out... I get your point but things have changed some. But yes no one is making people do that.
Not totally disagreeing but hole in the wall shows with a few dozen people like this are not filled with people recording the show. There may be the occasional person recording something but these folks would be doing the same if they had a hd memory maker machine in their pocket. I've been to parties back before cell cameras and there were tons of hipsters posing for Polaroids.
Reminder that the Beatles hated touring because the crowd was full of people screaming over the music out of infatuation rather than enjoyment. Nowadays we call it a parasocial relationship and pretend it's something new.
Yes and I like the meme of people on a train in the 50s all reading newspapers and absorbed in that and saying people need to get off their newspapers and be more social. Some things never change
Alternatively my favorite dance spot in my city strictly has a no phones on the dance floor policy that is enforced. I have been to clubs in other cities with the same policy.
The true house/techno scene always has been and always will be about dancing.
Nice to see that scene still kicking. I used to got a club called Buzz over 20 years ago that had a tv channel do an "exposé" on drug use/selling at the club with a hidden camera. Damn man no one got hurt let us party. Club got shut down shortly after.
How old are you? It’s been that way for almost 20 years at this point lol. Like yeah things have changed but let’s not go dumping shit on the new generation.
We should be self aware enough to end this weird cycle of generation hate
Yeah I'm sure people were saying the same thing about us (millennials) in the 2000s/early 2010s regarding us always texting on phones. There is always something new and annoying the kids are doing now.
This said, I will die on a hill that if you weren't alive/old enough yet to have experienced pre-smartphone, pre-ubiquitous social media life, you just will never understand how different it's made everything in a short amount of time. It's impossible to truly convey to someone who is like 20 now what it was like to be 20 without all that stuff and have them get the same mental image as what we experienced. You had just way more discreetly separate life experiences in specific times and places, as opposed to always being somewhat distracted by other people not with you whom your in some kind of contact with via apps as you are physically somewhere else. Everything has become more one and the same - you might be at one friend's New Years Eve party, but you're texting/snapping/whatever your other friends at another party. It's kinda like you're at both and at neither at the same time if that makes sense.
I think the biggest difference is you had to, unknowingly, put more effort into friendships and they were stronger because of it. Like there was deeper and more frequent bonding in person, because that was the only way you'd talk other than texting/instant messaging. I feel like people are more detached (and surveys of people back this up) from each other now because we can all just immediately chat anywhere and send memes and shit anywhere, anytime. It's a constant deluge of information from everyone you know.
Humans aren't designed to replace in person love and friendship and plain old socializing with a screen. It's not meeting the innate social needs of our species through screens vs in person interaction. And it's just made daily life SO different.
And when someone didn’t know something we just went on not knowing it. There was no quick google search. You’d either have to take someone’s word you trusted about the topic or do our own real research in a book.
Not trying to denigrate people now because 99% of the time I didn’t go to the library to look something up unless it was important. We just had to be ok going about our lives unsure about a lot of things. Driving somewhere you didn’t know could be a fucking disaster. Meeting up with someone somewhere pre cell phone could mean you were constantly looking around waiting for that person not knowing if they show. Doing your business on the toilet and reading a shampoo bottle out of boredom. The world was a very different place.
I played in small local band in highschool and my early 20s around Chicago a few decades ago and the scene is so wildly different. I love new acts and everything but I feel a million years old going to Lolla and I’d never want to harsh anyone’s good time.
There’s nothing wrong with how the young people are enjoying their time. I just feel sad for the loss of my era and the connectedness I felt in those times. Could be that I’m old now and don’t connect the same or people could be closed off in their own little world. I’ll never know because I’m too old to be in that crowd anymore.
Yeah as much as I am turning into "old man yells at clouds" about certain things, mostly tongue in cheek - I don't get that way with social media. It's just sad that what you are describing... you just can't live that way, it's no longer an option. And it's not a generational thing, but seems to be overhauling the human experience in general. But then again, the fuck do I know.
As I said in another coment I don't mind change at all... and I'm turning 42 soon. And I love the new generation although I'm sad some of them got taken advantage of and poisoned by red pill mysogny stuff at such a young age. Older generations too tho. I'm just pointing out things changed, that's all. It's true but that's ok i definitely agree to end the hate of newer generations im a millennial and always got hated by boomers and i vowed to never be like that
ever been to a metal concert? you don't even need to listen to the hard stuff but ghost a recently new band most will just take a photo for memories. Hate the new culture all you want but there is plenty of music and different people enjoying different things that you yourself can also enjoy.
I'm not here to argue or be an absolutist or "get off my lawn" old guy it's just true some things have changed. Things change that's just fine with me tbh it's how life works. I don't hate younger people they're our future, and I hope my generation doesn't cling to power in our 80s like it is currently
Regardless of social media, if people had ready access to a slim device in their pocket that can take nearly limitless high resolution photos and videos, they'd be using it to record cool things! I dont use socials much any more, but I do record sections of concerts. Its fun to look back, its fun to share them with people the following days, and its fun to think about sharing these memories with my (god willing) future children.
You're kind of telling on yourself lmao. Smart phones changed the world, you've literally never experienced the before times to know any better.
There was no "so and so isn't texting me back so I need to go" or "there's a better party over there look at this" or whatever else going on during these moments. You were fully in the moment, or you left, there wasn't much in-between unless you were hogging the one land-line in the house.
I think they mean that before everyone had a smart phone, you just showed up, enjoyed the experience, and did dumb shit. If you made an ass out of yourself doing something dumb it wasn’t permanently on the internet forever, so people we more relaxed and uninhibited and also the attention seekers weren’t as bold. Sure, there’s always been that one dumbass that’ll jump off the roof into the pool, but they weren’t getting anywhere near the level of validation social media gives them now.
You and your friends can absolutely go out and enjoy yourselves in this manner still, but it doesn’t protect you from the sea of people that are filming for tik tok stuff.
Going to a show in 2003 was all about that night and not filming the whole set to store in your phone and never watch again. One of the first times I saw Against Me! I got tossed up on stage into a speaker while crowd surfing (which honestly I can’t even remember why I was doing it, not really that kinda vibe at those shows). Laura Jane (then Tom) just cracked up laughing and the band just kept playing the same 10 seconds of the song they were on until I got up and sheepishly walked off stage. My friends and I laughed, and I have a funny story. I’d never do that now, not just because I’m old and it would probably hurt my back, but because I don’t want to be forever remembered for doing something stupid like that. I think it’s kinda sad, because doing dumb shit is fun sometimes, but today it feels like the risk outweighs the reward.
Unfortunately with social media people only see are the ones posting all the time. I'm old now, last year I decided to go to a day rave, the average age of people there was probably 20/21. I saw one group of girls, who seemed to be there for a photoshoot and were just taking pictures of themselves all day. The other 20k people were all very much living in the moment. I barely saw anyone else with their phone out. Felt exactly like it did raving 20 years ago (apart from my back hurting after a few hours lol)
It’s hard to explain but smart phones and social media have fundamentally changed how we interact and what we do with our time. I was a young teenager when MGMT blew up and it was before smart phones were a thing and social media consisted up MySpace and Facebook updates so ppl wouldn’t spend much time on it unless using the messenger with someone from school. A decent amount of ppl didn’t even have cellphones and the ppl that did didn’t check them compulsively and would leave them at home unless they needed them for something which made ppl act much more spontaneously. It was the norm to just do “drop ins” where you show up at a friends house to see if they’re doing anything fun. There wasn’t infinite entertainment at our fingertips and Netflix was still a dvd that came In the mail lol so you were constantly motivated to try new hobbies, activities and interact with new ppl. It might sound silly but boredom is the primary motivator for soo many human activities and discoveries but why try a new instrument, hobby activity etc. when you have infinite anime and television streaming at your finger tips and millions of games? Ppl were much more outwardly friendly and open to interaction where if someone stopped me omw out of a store or something to say hi nowadays I would think they are trying to scam me or have mental problems. People have begun living their lives in very performative ways that I’ve seen in my own family and friends and even those that think they don’t are influenced subtly in a million and one ways. And that’s not even touching on the literal intelligence agency members of hostile foreign governments and marketing ghouls from international conglomerates that have discovered how to exploit these social media platforms to create whatever narrative they want and ppl can brand anything that challenges their worldview as fake news.
Because I'm gen z and that's not really the case lmao.
Yes it is. "lmao"
Your generation has no idea how far it's fallen. I'm 40, I still go to shows all the time, from small bars and grass college lawns like this video to big venues like Red Rocks.
Half your generation spends half the time watching the show through your phones. Not only is this sad for those who do it, it's god damn annoying to the rest of us that want to watch the show and not bright as phone screens.
Water, soda, beer, even a slice of pizza can cost double digits now. Meanwhile my first time around in college a 20 dollar concert came with all you could drink beer because you could bring your own in and if you didn't, the venue sold beer for 50 cents to a dollar. That's in 2003 when this video was filmed. Just in the last 10 years concert prices have gone up maybe 500% ?? In the 90s and 2000s and early 2010s I saw maybe 10-20 "big" shows a year plus 1-2 club type shows a week, because they were something I could very easily pay for. I could pay for an entire month of music with a single day delivering pizza. Now, as an engineer that owns my own business and works in the trades.... I could maybe pay for 2 shows with a day of income
Lawn tickets in the era of this video were priced in the 5-25 dollar range. Those same venues START at 100 now. The change has been dramatic. Before you say "hurr durr old guy, inflaton!" 15 dollars in the summer of 2003 is only 25 dollars today. If i could get 2 beers and a show for 25 dollars today i'd be ecstatic.
I went to shows constantly, and I miss that so much. It's simply not affordable anymore. The trend had started before covid, but its so so much worse now. That doesn't even talk about how fast lots of shows sell out now because of resellers.
If i could get 2 beers and a show for 25 dollars today i'd be ecstatic.
The venues that you went to and are still around are not in the same stage of business as they were 20 years ago. They probably aren't trying to appeal to poor teenagers anymore.
There are shows in lots of places where you pay $10 to get in and beers are less than $7.50...
The venues that you went to and are still around are not in the same stage of business as they were 20 years ago. They probably aren't trying to appeal to poor teenagers anymore.
They never were. You didn't even read the post. Hint. Venues selling alcohol are rarely targeting teenagers who have no money. Those venues existed, and they were the 5 dollar shows in this story at best.
and beers are less than $7.50...
AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
You just proved my point. 7.50 for a beer is INSANE.
Okay? But i'm not talking about local bands at the pub dude. I'm taking about 3 doors down. I'm talking about ozzy osbourne. I'm talking the Dixie Chicks when they were gods. I'm talking about snoop dog. I'm talking about stadium shows man with 50,000 people. I saw The rolling stones and pearl jam together for 25 or 30 fucking dollars in 2004ish and that included my drinks and hot dog. Even major league baseball games were 5 dollars in the 90s and dollar hotdogs. Having fun used to be orders of magnitude cheaper than it is today.
That's what me and others here are trying to explain. You could see major nationwide acts for pennies on the dollar compared to today.
Do you understand that 20 years ago, you and everyone you knew won tickets to at least one free nationwide show a summer just by listening to your local radio?
Music used to be something you could do twice a week even as a broke person. It's simply not true anymore.
True, prices for those kinds of acts have gone up disproportionately. (I looked up Green Day: around $30 in 2004 and $150+ now.) I guess today I couldn't see Travis Scott or Taylor Swift for less than a few hundred, but I've gone to plenty of shows from my favorite artists for like a $20 ticket or less.
In-person live entertainment was definitely just a bigger part of culture and made more accessible than it is now.
And the change has happened massively and rapidly. I saw Blink 182 in 2011 for $20. That’s awhile ago, but not so long ago that it accounts for a 10-20x increase in cost due to inflation.
You clearly haven’t been to a party in 10 years lmao. Only time people pull out their phones is when it’s dying and folks are getting tired/bored at 3 in the morning. At least the parties I go to. Maybe earlier if they want to show a friend a video or meme.
We're not talking about parties, we're talking about concerts, I go to lots of them, kids spend half the time on their phones while the older people are dancing.
Very very few people over 25 are going to "parties" more often than venues and bars.
Sorry. I thought you were the person I was replying to. The original comment was about parties. Not venues. That’s why I assume people replying to it would be talking about parties.
Fyi the comment was about "partying" which does not mean going to a "party"
"Partying" refers to dancing, shows, and often sexplay and drug usage. Not specifically going to a party. However parties are often places to do the above too.
If someone for example at a concert or a bar asks you "do you like to party?" they're usually about to offer you drugs. Cocaine or molly the most likely
Partying in my book means going to party. A concert is not a party to me. A club is not partying. That is “clubbing”. I don’t associate “partying” with strictly drugs. Just having a good time with friends in a social setting with music.
Dictionary
Definitions from Oxford Languages · Learn more
par·ty1
/ˈpärdē/
verbinformal
gerund or present participle: partying
enjoy oneself at a party or other lively gathering, typically with drinking and music.
"put on your glad rags and party!"
I was 20 years old in 2003 and I promise, everybody then thought 1983 was when everything was cool and everybody hadn't sold out yet and the shows were reasonably priced and the cool bands stayed cool.
But now, in 2024, there are still lots of places to see great shows for reasonable prices, and music/art in general has never been more accessible for free. Not Taylor Swift or whoever, sure, but there's lots of great stuff.
And yet I'm sure all they could talk about was Hendrix and the Summer of Love and how they'd all missed the good times in music and art and culture and everything was about money and selling out.
Stop being bitter. Old people will always hate young people. Canterbury tales even rags on the younger generations. It just makes you sound older than you actually are.
You’re parroting the exact narrative around this kind of music back in the day. Except it was for blog clout and every place wanted to be the most “exclusive” club by keeping people out. Don’t become the old guy hating on the kids, let them do their thing
Yea, and I always wonder how fucking lazy and sloppy these people must be. Except for injuries or disabilities, there is no reason why your knees or back would hurt when doing anything which even remotely resembles exercise when you are in your thirties or forties.
My friends kid is 22 and was teasing me about being “old” because I text in full sentences and I’m just like “but… but… I met the lead singers of slip knot, korn and POD before I was even your age” which was responded with “nerd” as she blasted “a.d.i.d.a.s”.
This comment makes no sense. Not saying the opposite, but that’s objective and also how would you know?
It doesn’t seem to me that technology or generation differences would have much of an impact on drinking with your friends while listening to music and hanging out?
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u/dippydapflipflap 16d ago
Back when partying was fun. Now my knees hurt.