Venue discription

Throughout centuries art has been quite sensitive to changes and evolved to meet new challenges of society. By the beginning of the twenty-first century it was clear that pop art, music inclusive, had taken solid ground as part of social reality. The trend is that art is becoming increasingly active, rather than purely reflective, which means that modern audience is quite demanding. So, artists and entrepreneurs who stand behind them, have to be provocative and “aggressive” enough to involve the audience who is used to being entertained, surprised and shocked. Concert venues are a suitable medium for this kind of interaction between an artist and the audience. Their structure and marketing are flexible enough to feel and meet the needs of people at a certain moment of time. Today’s audience wants more than beauty, it wants a show, and the Metro Theatre as an example of a concert venue of this kind can fully satisfy people’s demands.My visit to a performance at the Metro Theatre was quite spontaneous. I was invited by my friend to a concert show by Ingrid Michaelson, with Greg Laswell as support act. My friend had little knowledge of the performers, and so did I. Anyway, because of her previous positive experience at the Metro Theatre she believed that she would enjoy this performance no matter who the singer was. This aspect is very peculiar, as I believe that this is the trend about modern venues to create an atmosphere, which will motivate people to visit not only because they have their favorite band performing but as matter of cultural experience. The Metro Theatre is this sense is quite successful in promoting the idea of musical gastronomy, that is of “tasting” fresh music, which is part of middle class urban life today. In fact, most of shows which are held at the Metro Theatre are rock and indie music. So, it would be fair to say that this hall is primarily meant for this kind of shows not only because it positions itself like this, but also because it has a suitable size, concept, acoustics, etc. At the same time, its marketing is good enough to keep the balance between indie and pop elements, or in other words those indie performers who come are still not so marginal not to be considered as part of pop music.Speaking about the concert itself, it appeared to be marvelous. Ingrid Michaelson comes from New York and can be considered quite an interesting cultural object. Not only does she have great vocals that catch the audience’s tastes but she also belongs to a larger environment of popular culture. Thus, her songs are quite recurrent of popular films and television shows including The Vampire Diaries, Bones, One Tree Hill, etc. So, she represents a trend that is highly characteristic of today’s popular culture: popular music merges with other genres, especially films and television. This is in fact a major feature of today’s young adults, who are the main consumers …