The Turning Point – Arena Rock

As the 1960’s and the “free music” era of rock came to an end, so did the majority of major rock festivals in the United States (Ethen 2014). The end of rock festivals ushered in a new era of arena rock, which would influence how concerts were performed and viewed for the subsequent decades. The motivations for this switch were legal, logistical, as well as financial. This change in venue shaped a new generation of rock music and could not have been effectively done without the adoption of new technology such as lights, pyrotechnics, distortion, and most importantly amplification. 

The rock festivals of the late 1960’s garnered massive crowds but also attracted massive scrutiny from the public and local legal officials. After Woodstock and the disaster that was the Altamont Free Concert many Americans began, “to view the rock festival as a harbinger of moral collapse, drug addiction, and general social chaos.” (Ethen, 2014).

In addition to these sentiments, many promoters of these festivals often ended up in trouble with city officials in the areas in which they hosted them. This was due to laws concerning how much food must be present, obtaining permits from various city agencies, dealing with district attorneys and public health officials who issued injunctions, and organizing security. Much of these issues spurred from the unpredictability of the crowd size of a given festival. By moving into new stadium venues, concert promoters were able circumvent many of these problems. Firstly, “the legal requirements for land-use permits were cut proportionately, reducing the promoter’s overhead cost and allaying the fears of local communities who were less tolerant of sprawling festivals.” (Ethen, 2014). Another reason was that the requirement for provisions like food, seating, and restrooms were essentially non-issues, as these stadiums were already slated to accommodate the entertainment of thousands of people at one time (Ethen, 2014). The reliability and predictability of knowing how many people were going to be at your event as well as knowing that the venue was suited to support that amount of people turned rock concerts from logistical nightmares to profitable entertainment events. 

In terms of the financial motivations for arena rock, the bands, promoters, building operators, and others all had something to gain. For the largest bands like The Rolling Stones, “It wasn’t long before [they] were routinely checking into arenas that could accommodate 18,000 ticket buyers, meaning that performers could clear as much in a single night as they previously would have playing in midsize theaters for a week, or in a month in the nightclubs.” (Lewis, 2018).

This changed the rock concert from being a tool to promote and sell more records, to a legitimate form of income for the performers. “Bands like the Stones, for example, started cutting better deals and found out you could actually make money going on tour, and that it wasn’t just about supporting an album.” (Lewis, 2018). Arena rock concerts, depending on venue and ticket price, could net in the tens of millions of dollars in revenues, which was split between the band, promoters, managers, and of course the stadium owners who loved to find ways to make profit on the nights between home sports games. Moreover, the move, “away from the expansive festival paradigm toward restricted seating arrangements, more manageable scheduling, and the interchangeability characteristic of high capitalism.” (Ethen, “Arena Rock”, 2014). 

In order to support these massive concerts, however, stadiums that at the time, “​were geared more toward things like Holiday on Ice and the circus” (Lewis, 2018), had to undergo great changes to deliver on their mission of entertaining the masses of rock fans. The adoption of new technology in terms of visual effects and amplification allowed for bands to effectively achieve this.

“Arenas, by nature, are large spaces designed for seating thousands of people. As such, sound must be delivered at loud volumes so that it has enough energy to reach its destination.” (Cowie, 2018). This led to the use of new amplification systems and forms of sound engineering to enhance the audience’s experience as well as the band member’s ability to perform. The introduction of the Marshall Amp was largely due to the request of performers to hear themselves be able to play over their bandmates as well as the roaring audience. The introduction of such large amplification systems, “might be the moment arena rock was born, and the start of a widening divide between audience and performer.” (Weir, 2012). Compared to the Hyde Park performance, the Madison Square Garden concert sounds more contained and structured, as it was transferred from the open outdoors to the confines of the corporate sponsored arena. No longer were rock concerts as participatory as they were spectator events, which led to the introduction of more visual stimuli on the stage, while “public address speakers grew in number, wattage, and quality to produce an overwhelming potential for amplification… stage lighting, pyrotechnics, smoke machines, and other effects contributed to arresting non-aural stimuli.” (Ethen, “Arena Rock”, 2014). The need to keep the crowd’s attention, who no longer had the natural scenery of outdoor venues to stimulate and entertain them (as well as the decreasing use of recreational drugs), in these arenas led to bands pushing further with their decorations, lighting, clothing, etc. “​​lighting effects became more dazzling, costumes often became more outrageous as performers tried to capture and keep the attention of fans, many of whom sat dozens or hundreds of yards away, rather than within spitting distance.” (Lewis, 2018). The Rolling Stones would even change their stage layout every concert, and introduced their famous lips-with-extended-tongue logo in new and bigger ways. (Lewis, 2018).

Not everyone was pleased with the extravagant and sometimes over the top use of visual effects in music however. “…the most elaborate hydraulic mechanisms and props drew the strongest reprobation of critics, who considered such camp especially detractive of musical efforts.” (Ethen, “Arena Rock”, 2014). What these critics fail to see is the evolution of the rock concert from a mere musical performance that lasted a maximum of 30 minutes per artist, to an event that spanned hours and sought to enthrall the audience in both a visual and audio experience.