This paper examines audience engagement at livestreamed concerts, a form of mediatised cultural consumption that saw an immense growth in popularity during the COVID-19 pandemic. Concerts, as events that draw large groups of people with similar intentions, are the perfect location for the establishment of large-scale interaction rituals – moments of group behaviour characterised by a highly intense collective emotion. Furthermore, as social occasions, concerts are organised around a set of routine interactions that construct and define the collective experience. We argue that in moving online, the definition of the (concert) situation is highly impaired due to a context collapse. In comparing two distinct audiences (classical and Dutch popular music), the first aim of this research is to explore how these differing audiences adapt their cultural behaviour to the virtual sphere. Secondly, by adopting a microsociological perspective, we aim to broaden the theoretical understanding of virtual large-scale interaction rituals, an area becoming increasingly important due to the growth in online communication. This paper uses discourse analysis of the synchronised comments, left on livestreamed concerts on Facebook Live (n = 2,075), to examine the interaction between audience members. We find that both classical and Dutch popular music audiences use a form of hyper-ritualised interaction. In an attempt to combat the plurality of meanings online, they explicitly refer back to the central conventions of the face-to-face concert. This emphasises not only the significance of genre conventions, but also presents a form of virtual interaction distinct form interpersonal interaction.

本文考察了现场直播音乐会的观众参与度，这是一种媒体化的文化消费形式，在 COVID-19 大流行期间大受欢迎。音乐会作为吸引大批志同道合者的活动，是建立大规模互动仪式的完美场所——以高度强烈的集体情感为特征的群体行为时刻。此外，作为社交场合，音乐会是围绕一组构建和定义集体体验的常规互动而组织的。我们认为，在在线移动中，（音乐会）情况的定义由于上下文崩溃而受到严重损害。在比较两个不同的听众（古典音乐和荷兰流行音乐）时，这项研究的首要目的是探索这些不同的受众如何使他们的文化行为适应虚拟领域。其次，通过采用微观社会学的视角，我们旨在拓宽对虚拟大型互动仪式的理论理解，这一领域随着在线交流的增长而变得越来越重要。本文使用同步评论的话语分析，留在 Facebook Live 上的直播音乐会（n  = 2,075)，以检查观众成员之间的互动。我们发现古典音乐和荷兰流行音乐的听众都使用一种超仪式化的互动形式。为了与在线的多重含义作斗争，他们明确地提到了面对面音乐会的中心惯例。这不仅强调了体裁约定俗成的意义，而且呈现出一种与人际互动截然不同的虚拟互动形式。