I agree that it is disruptive (the most obvious part was after “Sound of Silence”), but there is a weirder problem that needs solving to address that.
In years where people’ve explicitly banned applause, my reaction after a song that was really good is not to go “okay, the song is over and I feel sacred”, it’s “I really want to applaud right now and I can’t and I feel awkward.” This is exacerbated if there is a 30-90 second wait in between songs/stories as new performers get on stage.
I think people generally want to applaud for things that they liked.
So I think my preferred solution is to have an opening section of the night that’s not attempting to be solemn per se, where applause is reasonable. Then, have a shorter section (30-45 minutes) that’s explicitly “okay guys we are doing the sacred thing now, please do not applaud during this section. Then end with songs that are sacred but uplifting/inspirational in a way where applause is fine, and so feels natural.
And meanwhile, in sections (whether 30-45 minutes or the entire event) that you’re not supposed to applaud in, I think it’s really important to have the transition from one act to the next be immediate, so that I’m not sitting there wishing I could applaud and not having anything else to do.
Huh. I personally think the 10-60 seconds of nothing is the thing being disrupted. You need to have a space for the emotional weight to hit the audience and stick, before you move on.
Religious events don’t have this problem so it’s clearly solvable. I guess that points to creating some alternate outlet for reactions?
My personal take is that I want that ‘wait alone in the darkness with my thoughts’ thing exactly once, and I want it to feel on purpose rather than because-of-logistics.
I can be persuaded that “more than once” is the right amount, but if so it should still be something that looks deliberately intended, not an awkward waiting for people to shuffle onto/off stage.
Thoughts on applause:
I agree that it is disruptive (the most obvious part was after “Sound of Silence”), but there is a weirder problem that needs solving to address that.
In years where people’ve explicitly banned applause, my reaction after a song that was really good is not to go “okay, the song is over and I feel sacred”, it’s “I really want to applaud right now and I can’t and I feel awkward.” This is exacerbated if there is a 30-90 second wait in between songs/stories as new performers get on stage.
I think people generally want to applaud for things that they liked.
So I think my preferred solution is to have an opening section of the night that’s not attempting to be solemn per se, where applause is reasonable. Then, have a shorter section (30-45 minutes) that’s explicitly “okay guys we are doing the sacred thing now, please do not applaud during this section. Then end with songs that are sacred but uplifting/inspirational in a way where applause is fine, and so feels natural.
And meanwhile, in sections (whether 30-45 minutes or the entire event) that you’re not supposed to applaud in, I think it’s really important to have the transition from one act to the next be immediate, so that I’m not sitting there wishing I could applaud and not having anything else to do.
Huh. I personally think the 10-60 seconds of nothing is the thing being disrupted. You need to have a space for the emotional weight to hit the audience and stick, before you move on.
Religious events don’t have this problem so it’s clearly solvable. I guess that points to creating some alternate outlet for reactions?
My personal take is that I want that ‘wait alone in the darkness with my thoughts’ thing exactly once, and I want it to feel on purpose rather than because-of-logistics.
Holy shit, television did terrible things!
I can be persuaded that “more than once” is the right amount, but if so it should still be something that looks deliberately intended, not an awkward waiting for people to shuffle onto/off stage.