Have you watched the movie Bohemian Rhapsody? Go. Now. Or, read this post first, then go watch the movie. The eccentric band Queen was a “queen”-tessential audience-centric performer that created new content not necessarily for the sake of selling albums, but for engaging fans, intentionally including them in live performances. Today, most media content is, or at least should be, crafted for the audience. It’s what tech-savvy, engaged audiences expect. Queen, then, was decades ahead of its time and well before the emergence of new media, brilliantly crafting music that moved and motivated audiences.
Nowhere is this importance of audience engagement more obvious than Queen’s performance at LiveAid, the charitable concert that raised funds for famine in Africa. The moment the band walked on stage, it transferred its energy and power to the fans in the stadium and around the world watching via the new technology of satellite. Fans worldwide collectively hand clapped to “Radio GaGa,” a gesture that as Wooten so eloquently said, “...marked the instant in which we woke to a common humanity — a rush of adrenaline pumped by the possibilities for collective good in a newly-interconnected world.” Music and movie audiences have seen the potential in technology for these mediums to engage with their fan bases. Queen did this so effectively, creating music that resonates still today with a global audience. It would be interesting to see how artists who connect on a more intimate level with their audience using disruptive techniques could enjoy more success and a deeper level of fan engagement.
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