The Semiotics of the Encore :: Concert Music Audience Papers

The Semiotics of the quest IntroductionIn this reflexive paper, I wish to add a brief addendum to the literature nearly the semiotics of performance by examining the semiotic acts that surround the ritual of the bespeak in a live project performance. I will put d protest to my analysis of this phenomena my twenty-some years of experience witnessing rock concerts in venues of all sizes and with a wide variety of audiences and performers. I will argue that there atomic tot 18 specific elements to this ritual that are of finical interest to semioticians. I am going to attempt an admittedly incomplete semiotic analysis of the quest based on Daniel Chandlers guidelines for D.I.Y. Semiotic Analysis, as found at http//www.aber.ac.uk/dgc/sem12.html.The Umwelt of the Encore What are the important signifiers and what do they signify? - What is the system within which these signs turn sense? - What connotations seem to be involved? (Chandler, based on Berger, 40-41)The Umwelt of the c oncert goer, or semiotic stage of this event, includes the literal stage, which is raised to a greater or lesser degree above the seats on the main theme of the concert hall the levels of seating--the class structure, to put it in Marxist foothold the ushers and/or security the tickets which are required to gain admittance as well as the background of prior experiences that the concertgoer brings with him or her, and an infinite number of other aspects.Of course, this Umwelt, like all Umwelten, is not identical or habitual for all of the concertgoers. Each individual member of the audience builds up their own particular knowledge structures of this kind of event these structures form their own particular Umwelt. The more than experiences of concerts, the more complex the Umwelt constructed around them. For instance, the Grateful Dead very much performed two sets without an opening act. Most concerts feature two acts with an interim between them. A friend of mine, unfamiliar wit h the way the Deads music and the way they organize their concerts, went to her first Dead show and in the intermission between sets, express loudly, as it had been twenty minutes or so since the band had left over(p) the stage, Gee, when are the Dead coming on? This was greeted with howls of derision from her surrounding neighbors, whose Dead-concert Umwelt was more developed. The most important aspect of the rock-concert Umwelt, I would argue, isnt directly observable the infrared ring or wall around the stage which separates the performers from the audience.