The Magic 8 Ball and the Future of Live Music
Magic 8 balls, dice, cheers, rock paper scissors, and just plain random selection. These are the mechanisms by which setlists are chosen for live shows. From big artists like Fall Out Boy and 5 Seconds of Summer to smaller artists like The Maine, Weathers, and Sub-Radio, everyone seems to be coming up with new ways to introduce surprises into their setlists. What is with the current obsession with novelty in setlists regardless of crowd size or band longevity? There are many factors impacting this phenomenon, and, likely, this spontaneity is here to stay.
Larger Discographies
One of the more obvious factors for larger artists like Fall Out Boy is the sheer size of their discographies. There are so many songs to choose from that a 20-ish song setlist can’t possibly contain all of them. If one wants to play older deep cuts, this would often have to come at the expense of crowd-pleasing hits if not for a rotating slot for older, less widely popular tracks. In the case of Fall Out Boy, along with their nightly magic 8-ball song, which could result in any song in their discography, they had parts of their setlist rotating songs off their early albums Take This to Your Grave, From Under The Cork Tree, and Infinity On High.
Pleasing Fans
For the longtime fans of these larger bands, they are often thrilled by the attention these older, less widely popular (and sometimes never before played live) songs are getting. Even for smaller bands with smaller discographies, such as Weathers and Sub-Radio, some older songs don’t get as much attention as the new ones, and as their discographies continue to grow, rotating these songs in will continue to keep their older and diehard fans happy. In the case of Weathers, their show at the Fonda earlier this year included songs like I Don’t Wanna Know and a rock paper scissors battle which resulted in Rehab rather than Happy Pills, their most popular song. For Sub-Radio, their discography is small but continuing to grow, with unreleased songs from their forthcoming album taking up a few slots on their setlist at their show at the Troubadour, but the inclusion of a randomized song slot fatefully resulted in Talk About L.A. getting its time in the spotlight in West Hollywood.
However, these songs getting their time to shine isn’t only for the diehard fans. With the modern world of streaming, these bands’ full discographies are available to anyone with access to a streaming service. Even a casual fan now has access to everything these bands have produced, so it no longer takes a superfan to have a crowd appreciate these older or lesser-known tracks. As awareness of these tracks grows, the demand to hear them live will continue to grow, so letting them have a shot at being on the setlist will be important for bringing fans out to shows.
Profit and Experience
Getting fans to go to shows—especially in a post-pandemic world where entire concerts can be streamed from the comfort of home and music can be enjoyed anywhere with a phone and a streaming service—is not a huge challenge, as people want to return to in-person events, but will still take effort. With the addition of these randomized songs, there is the added sense of FOMO, or the fear of missing out, that can get people to come to not only one but multiple shows. The gamble of getting to hear an older song that you love can be convincing, so going to as many shows as possible to potentially hear these is a great way for tours to increase profit. As physical media decreases in popularity and percentage of musicians' income, streaming and live shows are becoming more important. Increasing the amount of people who go to each date of a tour is an easy way for artists to keep doing what they do while providing special experiences for everyone in the crowd, no matter how many shows they’ve been to.
Conclusion
Live music is changing, but contrary to many recent changes in the music industry, this change thankfully has many positive implications for both artists and fans. Increased tour profit for artists will allow them to keep providing their art to the world and fans will continue to get fun and unique experiences no matter how long they have been a fan or how many shows they’ve been to. Whatever mechanism is utilized next to create these setlists remains to be seen, but whatever it is, hopefully it will induce the same excited dread as hearing Hold Me Like a Grudge as the 8-ball stares down menacingly at the crowd.
Gasser, N. (2019). Why you like it: The science and culture of musical taste. Flatiron Books.
Hickey, W. (2024, June 12). Numlock news: June 12, 2024 ꞏ anime, dog man, j. lo. Numlock News.
McDonald, G. (2024). You have not yet heard your favorite song: How streaming changes music. Canbury Press.
Nicole, C. (2023, July 21). How fomo culture keeps you poor [Video]. YouTube.
Parris, D. & Riva, C. D. (2024, March 20). Which artists have the most diverse concert setlists? A statistical analysis. Stat Significant & Can’t Get Much Higher.
Parris, D. (2024, September 4). How are hit songs rediscovered decades later? A statistical analysis. Stat Significant.
Passman, D. (2023). All you need to know about the music business (Eleventh Edition). Simon & Schuster.
Petrusich, A. (2024, June 17). Lizzy mcalpine wants to go offline. The New Yorker. https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2024/06/24/older-lizzy-mcalpine-music-review
Riva, C. D. (2023, August 31). Your followers are not your fans. Can’t Get Much Higher.
