Somehow, Concerts Are the Biggest Memes of the Summer

On Wednesday, Juneteenth, Kendrick Lamar threw himself a party. Dubbed “the Pop Out: Ken and Friends,” the concert—held astatine the Kia Forum successful Los Angeles—served arsenic a solemnisation of West Coast hip-hop, and a “victory lap” for Lamar aft helium ostensibly won his beef with Drake pursuing the merchandise of “Not Like Us.” Or, arsenic one X idiosyncratic called the show, “Kendrick Lamar Presents: I Hate Drake the Musical.”

The Pop Out, which was livestreamed connected Amazon Prime Video, trended Wednesday and into Thursday, and though overmuch of the chatter revolved astir the performances by Tyler, the Creator, Steve Lacy, and Dr. Dre, adjacent much seemed to absorption connected Lamar utilizing the amusement arsenic a accidental to get successful different jab astatine his rival. “Kendrick truly threw his ain Hatechella lol” wrote 1 X user, “this is the hateration and holleration that Mary J. Blige was talking about.” The X relationship for the Public Enemies Podcast wrote “this level of hatred volition ne'er beryllium duplicated.”

Ultimately, it wasn’t astir hate; Lamar expressed respective times that the amusement was meant to beryllium a infinitesimal of unity, adding that it had “nothing to bash with nary opus astatine this point, ain’t got thing to bash with nary backmost and distant records.” He did, though, execute “Not Like Us” upwards of 4 times, thing that successful crook fueled the online furor implicit his beef with Drake adjacent more.

Lamar’s amusement was conscionable the latest successful a bid of concerts this summertime that person taken viral net civilization moments and brought them to the stage—or utilized the signifier to make viral moments of their own.

Two weeks ago, erstwhile popular femininomenon of the infinitesimal Chappell Roan took the signifier astatine New York’s Gov Ball dressed arsenic the Statue of Liberty, she created a near-instant meme fueled by her declaration that she turned down an invitation to play a Pride amusement astatine the White House. “We privation liberty, justice, and state for all,” she said. “When you bash that, that’s erstwhile I’ll come.”

Roan’s popularity, fueled mostly by her online fandom and her inability to enactment a azygous atrocious opus connected The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess, convinced the organizers of Bonnaroo Music Festival to give her a bigger stage astatine the lawsuit past weekend. Her performance, and the thousands of radical that flocked to it, created yet different viral moment. (Search “Chappell Roan Bonnaroo” on TikTok for a taste.)

Want maine to bring it afloat circle? Here’s this tweet from X idiosyncratic @JoseRMejia: “Imagine [if] Kendrick brought retired Chappell Roan.”

This isn’t the archetypal clip concerts person caused a disturbance online, of course. When Beyoncé headlined Coachella successful 2018, it astir melted down YouTube, which streamed the performance. It ignited the work formerly known arsenic Twitter, too. Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour is similar a surviving meme, getting caller iterations each clip it goes to a caller municipality oregon continent, getting its lifeblood, vampire-style, from the hyper-connected Swiftie fandom arsenic it goes.