“We Are Interrupted by Your Noise”: Heckling and the Symbolic Economy of Popular Music Stardom

Abstract

Heckling has rarely been examined in popular music studies. The argument of this piece is that audience members heckle in an attempt to alter the balance of power in live musical performance. To understand this I introduce the idea of the ''symbolic economy,'' a framework of assumptions and interpretations held by audience members that gives stars their social value. My argument is that each musician's aura is perceived when his or her performance is both recognizably popular and emotionally meaningful to each fan. Heckling can potentially damage the aura by shifting attention away from the star, condemning the content of his or her performance, and forcing him or her to make an impromptu response.Drawing on theory from sociology and literary studies, the article supplies examples to help us understand the potentials of this process by creating a typology of different heckles. Finally, it explores the ways in which musicians have carefully managed any threats posed by cries from the audience.Does not musical fantasy consist of giving oneself a place, as a subject, in the scenario of the performance? (Barthes 152)The listening fantasy, to put this another way, is that we control the music (the sexual exchange) when in fact the performer does. (Frith 215) When they perceive things go wrong in a live performance, audience members can use a range of negative responses which include murmuring, jeering, slow clapping, spitting, booing, throwing objects, or walking out. Often an immediate response, heckling is the practice of badgering the performer with interruptions and questions. My interest in the phenomenon began in March 2004 when I attended a concert called Words and Music at the Bridgewater Hall in Manchester, England, staged to celebrate twenty-five years of punk in the city. Introduced by local music scholar CP Lee, the night had a line-up consisting of Howard Devoto and Pete Shelley of the

Why promote sold‐out concerts? A Durkheimian analysis

“…To adopt Durkheim's ideas is therefore not to reduce people to proverbial cultural dupes, but instead to account for the intense feelings experienced by the convinced fraction of the audience[2]. By routinely aligning performers with mass audiences the live music industry interpolates the individual and collective in a way that I have previously described as a “symbolic economy” (see Duffett, 2009). To further focus on the affective dimension of performance using Durkheim, we can to follow through a process across three stages: the first is that the crowd has power in its collectivity; the second is that the performer senses power from the support of their audience; the third is that each individual fan feels a thrill from their connection to the star.…”

Genre and the cultural politics of territory: The live experience of free improvisation

“…The violent opposition faced by Borbetomagus, their promoters and audience might be seen as an extreme form of oppositional heckling, where the audience response shifts from the isolated critique of an individual fan to collective disapproval by a body of the audience: ‘oppositional heckles mark out artists who appear uninterested in satisfying the present audience’ (Duffett, 2009: 48). For Borbetomagus, the circumstance of their transplantation into an environment that contained ‘their’ audience and an ‘other’ audience made performance impossible.…”

“…For Borbetomagus, the circumstance of their transplantation into an environment that contained ‘their’ audience and an ‘other’ audience made performance impossible. In this live situation, the ‘unequal social relations that facilitate live popular music’ (2009: 54) have broken down completely. The physical power demonstrated by the ‘native’ audience proves more powerful than any hierarchy of symbolic economy, wherein audience members might enjoy a brief, though significant, influence over proceedings.…”

“Is It in My Head?”: The Pleasure and Pain of Listening to the Who, 1964-1973

“…he curious appeal of the Who's high volume and startling performance style for an early generation of rock music fans has only recently begun to attract the attention of scholars interested in post-1945 Atlantic cultural history (Simonelli, 2002;Quirk and Toynbee, 2005;Duffet, 2009). his article examines the attraction of the band, covering the years from their start in 1964 to the release of their seminal double album Quadrophenia in 1973.…”