FEATURE: Brie, Bracelets and Ashes: Why Yeeting Artists Could End Very Badly

FEATURE:

 

 

Brie, Bracelets and Ashes

IN THIS PHOTO: Kelsea Ballerini is among several artists who have had objects thrown at them (a term called ‘yeeting’) during gigs recently 

 

Why Yeeting Artists Could End Very Badly

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THIS has been written about…

 IN THIS PHOTO: Adele has called out people throwing stuff at artists (yeeting), and warned people who have thoughts of doing it to her/PHOTO CREDIT: Getty Images

a few times recently. There is a new trend emerging of fans going to live music events and throwing things at artists. It has been a few gigs in question, but it is both bizarre and psychologically confusing. From P!nk being thrown a wheel or brie, to Bebe Rexha and Ava Max being injured by fans, it is a worrying trend. So far, there has been no serious industry, but you do wonder why someone would hurl any object at an artist they have come to see. The term, yeeting, refers to an object being lobbed at force at someone. There are possible theories as to why this is happening. To me, there is this chain effect. One artist experiences a fan hurling something at them and, as that is shared online and gets reaction from social media, that inspired another fan to be reckless and create another yeeting viral moment. If the idea of P!nk being hurled a wheel of brie or Lil Nas X receiving a sex-toy at a Swedish gig seems amusing, think of what it must be like for an artist! Not only is it disrespectful and inconsiderate, it is is also scary. Maybe fans are trying to be funny and get attention. This weird grab for temporary notoriety could translate into something very dangerous. Security can’t prevent this from happening, but we don’t want to get to the point where barriers are put up between audiences and artists. The Guardian published a feature today. Joel Golby theorised why we have seen a series of weird yeeting going down at gigs. At a time when gigs are being cancelled and artist are struggling financially and psychologically, it is hard to fathom whether this new trend is fans trying to disrupt gigs and attack artists, or whether it is a dangerous and unusual way of getting onto social media. Whatever the flawed rationale is, there is this dangerous of one-upmanship: throwing heavier, bigger and more dangerous objects could lead to an artist being injured or deciding they do not want to face this danger at a gig:

“It is important, when considering throwing a family-size wheel of brie at the singer Pink, to meditate on the logistics involved. The first is buying the brie: this alone will have taken some plotting, finding a place that had whole uncut wheels of brie, refrigeration, etc. Then there’s getting the brie there: in all the excitement of getting ready, the outfit changes and the gins-in-tins, the group photos and the sing-a-longs, there is – always – a wheel of brie, which is too big for a tote bag and grows heavier by the minute. You need to be near the front, and to get the brie to Pink, you have to choose to do it during the right song (a ballad rather than a bop). And then of course there is the decision that starts it all off: at Pink this weekend, at a gig I bought tickets to months ago and have been growing in excitement for ever since, I’m going to take a big brie and throw it to her. That is not a normal decision.

2023 has been a good year for pop stars being thrown things on stage. During her BST Hyde Park residency Pink received both the wheel of brie and a small bag of an audience member’s late mother’s ashes. (“This is your mum? I don’t know how to feel about this.”) Lil Nas X paused a Stockholm gig after a fan threw a sex toy mid-performance. (“Who threw their pussy on stage? What’s wrong with y’all?” was the frankly quite measured response.) Less amusingly Bebe Rexha was taken to hospital for stitches after she had a phone thrown at her on stage in New York last month, and country singer Kelsea Ballerini had to pause a gig in Idaho last week after being hit in the face with a bracelet thrown from the crowd. Legitimate artist safety concerns aside, it must be asked: why, in 2023, is there such a trend for yeeting things at performers?

I’m no expert but I’m really good at guessing things, and so I think this answer is a combination of three coexisting trends. Firstly, the elastic back-and-forth of fan and artist closeness that boomed during the peak of social media (and led to the current ferocious energy of stan culture) has started to gain its controlled distance again, and fans are struggling to reconcile that artists who spoke to them directly a few short years ago are letting someone from “their team” do all their tweets and grid posts again. It was easier to go to date 25 of a 70-city show and think you were getting a unique experience when the artist would send a badly formatted tweet a couple of hours after the encore, but this isn’t really happening any more, and with TikTok video from every angle of the arena going online before the performance has even ended, you really do know what you’re getting before you turn up. The only way to guarantee you had a different gig from the half million other attendees this month is by throwing a pocket pussy at the Old Town Road guy.

Secondly, this does feel like a natural endpoint for ravenous fan culture, because so much of being a superfan screaming yourself hoarse in a stadium is feeling like you uniquely understand the artist and you uniquely know everything about them and their fame, and a lot of that is to do with knowing lore. Pink holding up a bag of ashes and saying, “I don’t know how to feel about this”, immediately goes into the Pink lore book, for instance. Being a Pink fan now involves knowing that that happened. Being the person who handed Pink the bag of ashes? No one will ever hand Pink cremains like you did. You and her are bonded over this, for ever.

Then, of course, there is the fact that everything is now a meme. We know Pink got a brie because we have footage of it happening; we know Lil Nas X stopped a song because there’s footage of it happening; we know Matty Healy sucked a fan’s thumb at the start of the 1975’s tour because there was lots and lots and lots of footage of it happening. Some artists have managed to neatly parlay this into their brand (Charli XCX signing poppers and a douche during various 2019 meet-and-greets, Phoebe Bridgers being handed a sword, which she later commemorated with a tattoo). Adele joked this week at her Vegas residency, “I dare you throw something at me, I’ll fucking kill you” before – hypocritically, if you ask me – turning a T-shirt cannon on the crowd”.

Whether a fan feels what they are doing is funny, whether they want to create chaos, or it is simply them trying to think of something that will be discussed on social media, I hope that this practice dissipated and dissolves. Quite a few articles have been written. Each time I read an article, I come away concerned for all artists. In the case of Ava Max and Bebe Rexha, they sustained injury. Two young women attacked whilst on stage is quite scary! They have retuned to the stage, but how long before another fan throws something at them? I don’t think there is anything amusing about stopping a gig by throwing something at an artist! Whether dangerous or not, it sadly inspires others to go bigger and harder. The safety of artists and fans is paramount. We should not really be in a time where we are discussing why artists are being attacked. Yeeting is a bit concerning. I am one in a long list of people who have tried to explain it. The fact that it has grown in the past couple of months seems to have no catalyst or real reason. Maybe fans are just reacting to what came before and doing their own versions. Some strange performance art. A way of blurring the boundaries between the audience and musician. Whatever the (baffling) reason behind it is, let’s hope that it stops before it gets very extreme – and an artist is hospitalised or worse. At a time when artists are pushing themselves and many are losing money performing because of the cost of setting up and travelling to a gig is more than they get paid, they should not be subjected to this sort of thing. Let’s hope that yeeting is…  

MERELY fleeting.

Sam Liddicott