Coldplay triggers demand 'Hotplay' in India, the FOMO is real

Mumbai, Sep 23 (IANS) The British rock band Coldplay is set to perform in Mumbai next year in January. The ticket sale for their upcoming concert went live on Sunday, and got sold out within minutes with many fans of the band left hanging.The website of the ticketing platform crashed owing to the huge traffic. Later, the ticketing platform announced the addition of a third day to their concert in India. If the sell out tickets wasn’t enough, the clever marketing gimmick of adding the third day gave a huge boost to the buzz around the concert.The Google trends show the search for ‘Coldplay’ peaking twice during the day, first at 12:10 pm on Sunday followed by a smaller spike at around 1:45 pm. The highest search traffic came from Goa, Maharashtra and Karnataka in that order. The huge demand in Goa is attributed to its hippie culture and the Goan lifestyle which stresses majorly on consumption of good international music.

In Maharashtra, the highest traffic naturally came from Mumbai, the city where the band is set to perform. Mumbai is considered a highly bipolar city with extremes at both ends of the financial capital. The maximum city being the economic capital of India also adds a lot of value to the demand.

In Karnataka, the maximum traffic came from Manipal, a major student hub and naturally a young crowd of music enthusiasts.

In no time, memes based on the sell out of the concert within minutes made their way to social media healing the fans who couldn’t grab a ticket as they found solace in self-deprecating humour.

But, what led to such unprecedented demand for the concert? Well, there are many factors at play here.

First, it’s the obvious increase in fan-following of the band because of audio & video streaming, and social media. Fans, who discovered the band through social media or streaming mediums incubated a loyal following of the band. YouTube provided a gateway to have a peek into what looks like a standard Coldplay concert, and the results are absolutely appealing to a normal concert-goer.

Interestingly, the band’s best live performance was almost 20 years ago in Toronto, Canada as a part of their Twisted Logic Tour.

Second, it is the young crowd entering the workforce in urban sectors with high paying jobs, and little to zero financial liabilities. The FOMO (fear of missing out) around such events is huge, case in point the sale of iPhone 16, and the recent Diljit Dosanjh concert tickets in India.

The itch to click a picture at the concert, even if it is at the lowest priced stand, and to post it in Instagram Stories, makes one completely shut off rationality, and chase a trend no matter how damaging it can prove to their finances.

The FOMO comes mainly from the colonial hangover, and the aspirations for everything western. India, being a musically rich land of Carnatic and Hindustani music, has had many genius musicians. Case in point, sitar maestro Ravi Shankar, even collaborating with George Harrison of The Beatles but seldom the homegrown artistes get such an overwhelming response to their craft or if they do it’s because of the Pizza effect.

Another reason behind the mind-boggling demand is the expansion of the Indian economy. Back when Michael Jackson performed in Mumbai in 1996, he saw a turnout of 35,000 roaring fans, again a completely sold out concert for its time owing to the opening up of the Indian economy. And the King of pop had made its way to the deepest interiors of the country that too in the absence of smartphones and the Internet.From 35, 000 to a crowd of 80, 000 in Coldplay’s last concert in Mumbai in 2016, the average Indian has come quite far, and is willing to burn a hole in its pocket just for an instant burst of dopamine, social media clout or purely for the love of craft, perhaps.