A Wholesome COVID-19 Concert Experience

Being a live music lover, going nearly a year without going to live shows has been tough and I know I’m not the only one. I live off of that energy for weeks on end so not having it in my life has forced me to look for good vibes elsewhere. Thankfully musicians are adapting to the virtual world well and are putting on some really cool live events! Recently I was lucky enough to attend one of these live virtual shows for Tai Verdes. Well attend may be a strong word choice… I watched his live show on TikTok and followed it when it moved to Instagram. Regardless, the show was really dope! He played his hits that I love him for and even some of his unreleased songs! I feel like that’s not something you would even see in a traditional live show so that was super awesome.

I’m not going to pretend that this felt the same as attending an in person live show but it did make me feel a lot of joy. There were only about 500 people watching on TikTok and 100 on Instagram Live so it felt very intimate despite the miles between us all. The show was made even more intimate when Tai brought viewers live with him to talk and ask questions. I do miss in-person live music don’t get me wrong, but this is another wonderful example of something that is unique to playing live music on virtual platforms.

Honestly I’ve been looking for an excuse to talk about Tai Verdes on the blog since his song “Drugs” came out which has so many good vibes (especially the music video). As an advertising major I’m just fascinated by Tai’s rapid rise to fame! Anyone who uses TikTok probably knows his song “Stuck in the Middle” which flooded the For You Page for months. It’s just so interesting to see someone get famous on TikTok where people make videos using each other’s music. This of course is another way of sharing music but a much more interesting way since you’re making art by using the music. At some point I may have to put together a playlist of all the music I listen to because of TikTok which is quite a bit.

Anyway I don’t want to endorse TikTok because some ethically questionable things happen on the app but I do think TikTok has changed music consumption and social media in a very interesting way.

I’m very happy to see artists like Tai Verdes share live music and interact with their fans virtually during this time when human interaction in any degree is crucial. Hopefully this will continue even after the pandemic is over!