ABSTRACT
Large-scale popular music concerts, festivals, and shows are grouped together in this chapter because they are essentially the same type of event; the words concert, festival, and show are used interchangeably in the Việt Nam News and in other Vietnamese English language publications, including advertisements (posters, newspaper announcements, fl iers, etc.). As we have seen in Chapter 6, large live events in Vietnam are held in concert halls and theaters, arenas and stadiums, public parks and water parks, school grounds and other sites that can accommodate large crowds. I see these large-scale popular music events as having the following four purposes or reasons for their occurrence (in alphabetical order): aesthetic, economic, ideological, and personal. These purposes are so thoroughly mixed, however, that it is diffi cult if not impossible to determine which is most important. By aesthetic purpose I mean entertainment quality, which is mostly a value judgment. The economic purpose, however, can be measured by dividing it into two subcategories: for profi t and for free. Furthermore, profi t can be measured in terms of money earned or lost. By ideological purpose I refer to charitable versus noncharitable events. Finally, I see the personal purpose as incorporating at least two basic ideas: the career enhancement of the performer(s) and a ritualistic performance high for the performer. These four categories are quite arbitrary, and the fi rst and last (aesthetic and personal) are found in all of them in various degrees. Indeed, as Roy Shuker writes: “Concerts are a ritual for both performers and their audience” 2003:205), meaning that the aesthetic and personal reasons for their being are part of what Mantle Hood calls “the untalkables of music” because they cannot be scientifi cally measured (1982:307-310). Therefore, in this chapter I analyze large-scale concerts, shows, and festivals from the points of view of my middle two parameters, as placed within the following subheadings: Pop Music for Profi t/Pop Music for Free; Shows as Competitions; Pop and Rock Concert Tours; and Pop Music Shows for Charity. The following paragraphs include my analyses of many popular music (mostly pop and rock music) events that occurred between 1992 and 2005; they are studied chronologically. In addition, I analyze the popular music events in terms of the politics of remembering and the economics of forgetting.
