Producing watchables in live music

What is it about?

Music audiences become absorbed in the preferred performative choreography of their favorite band through participation in the concerts and the circulation of the Internet videos from earlier concerts. As the audience learns to expect certain actions from the side of the performers, performers may need to improvise in order for the choreography to be successfully enacted.

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Why is it important?

This paper exemplifies how members of the pop duo Kings of Convenience produce “watchables” in their live concert and manage the audience responses. It introduces the concept of choreography, defined as situationally enacted participation and action framework that provides sequential structure for social interaction, for studying performer–audience interaction during musical performances.