post-Woodstock '69

[kineticsymphony]

Local gov'ts became unwilling to host the kind of event that might prove an unmitigated financial disaster by unexpectedly taxing local services. Rock promoters were thus forced to move concerts into large arenas and stadiums that were specifically designed to handle large crowds. The move to numbered seats, along neatly aisled rows, did more than end the casual social interaction that had put rock at the center of the counterculture movement. In an arena or stadium a crowd could be monitored and controlled, and large-scale consensual illegal activities were no longer possible. And it forever separated the performer from the audience. Rock music was tranformed into the same kind of controlled amusement as baseball or football. - Barry Melton

policing public invention