The music industry and specifically the live music industry has changed so rapidly during the 2000s that it’s nearly impossible for anyone, artist or consumer, to keep up. With the pandemic forcing the rapid normalization of recorded performances supplementing live shows, and insane ticket prices plaguing music fans, it seems some of the biggest names in the world, including Olivia Rodrigo, are tapping into a fruitful compromise.
Concert films may have become trendy again, in part because of modern artists, but they’ve been around for a long time. Classic rock acts were able to put out psychedelic visuals to match their lofty conceptual ideas for the music. Two notable examples include Led Zeppelin’s The Song Remains The Same (1976) and Pink Floyd’s The Wall (1982). Continuing on the high-concept route, in 2003, electronic music pioneers Daft Punk took the concert out of the concert film and essentially created an hour-long music video for their album Discovery. Titled Interstellar 5555: The 5tory of the 5ecret 5tar 5ystem, Daft Punk’s self-proclaimed “house-musical” follows a band of intergalactic beings who are captured and eventually rescued, all set to music from Discovery.
As is perhaps unsurprising, the explosion of concert film in the last two years was sparked by Taylor Swift, as her The Eras Tour concert film was the cherry on top of one of the most dominant years a pop culture figure has ever had. On October 11, 2023, Swift released The Eras Tour concert film, a recording of her “The Eras Tour,” which dominated pop culture in the summer of 2023 and soon became the highest-grossing tour of all time. The movie is over two and a half hours, and features a majority of the The Eras Tour setlist, professionally shot over Swift’s six shows at the SoFi Arena in Los Angeles.
Taylor’s success followed her from the stage to the screen, with The Eras Tour film becoming the most successful concert film of all time, making over 261 million dollars and being the 24th highest-grossing film in 2023 according to Box Office Mojo. After its theatrical run, The Eras Tour film was released on Disney Plus in March of 2024 where it received 4.6 million views in its first three days according to Variety.
Shortly after the release of Swift’s concert film, one of 2023’s other big tours was adapted to the screen with Renaissance: A Film by Beyoncé, released in December 2023. Beyoncé has long been in the business of adapting her performances to film, having released Homecoming: A Film by Beyoncé, documenting her iconic 2018 Coachella performance. Renaissance: A Film by Beyoncé served as her capturing both her 2023 tour and the creation of the film’s namesake album Renaissance. The film allowed audiences to get a deeper look into Beyoncé’s creative process and added a new layer to the album — and the tour — that had been previously unseen.
Lady Gaga’s Chromatica Ball took a similar approach to Beyoncé and Swift, though the film was never released theatrically, instead being aired to HBO, first on TV and then on demand with HBO Max.
For a look at a lesser-known concert film, with a weirder take than Swift, Beyoncé, or Gaga, we can look at modern rock’s strangest sensation. Earlier in 2024, Ghost released their concert film Rite Here, Rite Now. Ghost has had a meteoric rise in the past few years, particularly with their single “Mary on a Cross” finding viral success in 2023. Ghost has been synonymous with complex internal lore and characters since its inception. Sticking with this, Rite Here Rite Now is half concert film, half drama about lead singer Tobias Forge’s character, Papa Emeritus IV, finding out secrets about himself and stepping into a new position of power. While notably not as popular as Swift and Beyoncé, Ghost’s narrative-focused take on the concert film is reminiscent of high-concept concert films of rock’s past.
Olivia Rodrigo became the next major pop star to make a concert film with her GUTS tour movie, which premiered on Netflix on October 29. Taking a similar route to Swift and Gaga, GUTS World Tour allows fans to watch a professionally shot version of Rodrigo’s concert in Los Angeles, including the full circle performance of the tour’s opener and now superstar Chappell Roan joining Rodrigo on stage to perform “Hot To Go!”. While it’s too early to call how the GUTS film will compare in terms of success to her pop peers, the hype around the GUTS World Tour film shows that fans are excited and willing to support their favorite artists, both on the road and on the couch.
As live music becomes more expensive, both for artists and fans, concert films allow fans who were unable to fight their way through a Ticketmaster queue to experience their favorite artist performing live from the comfort of their own homes. With the ever-increasing demand for live music, the concert film isn’t going to kill the touring industry, but it has fundamentally changed the way that fans, both now and in the future, will be able to reminisce on or experience these screen-worthy touchstones of music’s biggest stars, without having to pay an arm and a leg.
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