On Saturday, April 23rd, Kane Brown, a Georgia native, arrives at the Crazy Bull in Macon, Georgia to a sold-out crowd. I wanted to see Kane, who launched his career from social media, after the announcement of signing with Sony records before he sells to packed out arenas. The day of, numerous fans showed up at 9 a.m, either in hopes of tickets or a place by the stage. I didn't go this far. I knew what to expect. However, expectations greatly outweighed reality for some.
I couldn't help but notice from my place at the back of the bar (mostly to avoid the overly drunk patrons by the time I arrived). To my left was a young woman dressed in a Kane Brown tour shirt. I'm almost positive she arrived in this shirt so that tells me she has been to a show of his before, and keep in mind this is the only show he has played in Georgia, so she traveled hundreds of miles to see him. She looks disappointed. This was a crowded bar that holds 2,200 people and she was nowhere near the stage. It was not an intimate or personal setting and I believe most fans arrived with the idea that they would receive that kind of treatment. To my right was a teenage girl accompanied by her mother, which I thought was simultaneously odd and admirable. However, the first drunk girl that got close to them and let an explicit fly out of her mouth, the mother scolded her. I was embarrassed just witnessing this, much less being an associated party. People expected this intimate/personal concert and it wasn't... but that's just part of the bar show experience.
Fans of Kane witnessed his growth from an eager artist doing covers to someone writing their own material and making their mark. What I have noticed is a sense of entitlement in the fans of an artist who grow out of the social media platform. In no way am I suggesting that Kane's talents did not create him, they most certainly did, but to the fan base THEY created Kane through their active viewing and sharing process. Pairing this sense of entitlement with the expectation of an intimate concert when you finally meet your internet idol leads to potential disappointment. For me, the thoughtfully chosen covers made this show amazing. Kane looked great. He sounded great. And by covering songs such as Blake Shelton's "Old Red," "Kryptonite" by 3 Doors Down and my favorite "Ignition" by R. Kelly, Kane Brown truly lived up to the expectation he set of "Chris Young’s voice on a Sam Hunt track."
https://itunes.apple.com/us/artist/kane-brown/id93...
