Rhythm Nation

Okay, so where am I?

I took a break from the org chart and strategic planning to try and get some Taylor Swift concert tickets for the kid’s graduation. It seems to a traditional to send the kid and her BFF to a Taylor Swift concert during graduation season. Last time is was at Staples Center and the capacity was only only 18,000. This time around it’s at the Rose Bowl and its 100,000 seats. I think my chances are good.

All of this reminded me how I used to get concert tickets. Back in 1990, Janet Jackson’s Rhythm Nation 1814 Tour was all the rage covering 113 shows in Japan, Europe, and North America. Getting tickets then wasn’t so simple. In order for you to have had the privilege of plunking down your money to purchase your tickets, you had to wait in a long line at Ticketmaster that was situated inside a record store (or was it TicketTron back then?) for several hours, often even overnight.

“What’s a record store?” you ask. Well, that’s a story for another day…

Yes, before the Internet and technology did everything but spoon-fed you dessert, small villages of music fans materialized the day before tickets for a major artist or group went on sale in your city. Imagine that? The scenes were like little pop-up Woodstocks. People brought lawn chairs and sleeping bags. Some brought guitars and boomboxes dotted the line. There was a strong likelihood that the smell of illegal cannabis would fill the air. Stories were traded and lies were told.

Now, you don’t have to wait in these lines and you can still get lousy tickets even if you buy them a minute or two after they go on sale if you don’t have your special AMEX or Citibank code to get the good tickets. However, most of the time it’s Tap-tap-tap and you’re all set, taking the easy way out in the process along the way.

Don’t get me wrong, the convenience of buying online is unmatched and if you strike out at Ticketmaster, you can always go to StubHub (or another third-party ticket broker) and get the ticket of your choice, sometimes cheaper than buying them from the source. But convenience comes at a cost.

Yes, we had to endure the overnight cold and line cutters, but if you were close enough to the front of the line, there was a legitimate shot you would leave with some really great seats, marching triumphantly with your tickets already in hand. These weren’t just any tickets you could print off in plain bond paper from your laserjet, but real perforated tickets with your event, venue, seat location engraved right there into the paper.

Sometimes you were booed out of jealousy by those still waiting in line and sometimes you were slow-clapped out of the door…the sound of hands supplying the fuel to lift your sleep-deprived legs to your car.

The camaraderie shared by music fans was something to treasure. All of us united with a unified taste and love of the same artist. This is lost today in the soulless, robotic online transaction. But on the bright side, I was about to get my kid her tickets without throwing down with the Swifties telling me that the haters are going to hate, hate, hate.

Back in 1990, my Janet Jackson tickets cost $22 each and what a lovely, enlightening date that turned out to be. Worth every penny. Twenty-eight years later, the tickets were five times that plus a hefty convenience fee charge. But once I see those pictures posted on my kid’s Facebook, it will be all worth it.

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Not that anyone cares, but here was the set list of songs played April 21, 1990:

1. Control
2. Nasty
3. What Have You Done for Me Lately
4. When I Think of You
5. The Pleasure Principle
6. Let’s Wait Awhile

Intermission

7. State of The World
8. Black Cat
9. Alright
10. The Knowledge
11. Escapade

Encore:
12. Miss You Much
13. Rhythm Nation