By: Gen Z Music Lover

I thought getting tickets to see Harry Styles at Madison Square Garden would feel electric; like I’d beaten the system and secured my spot in an unforgettable evening of artistry and music.

Instead, it felt like I got mugged…coyly, digitally, while a countdown clock took note of my last few minutes of dignity.

It started with the usual ritual: multiple tabs open, password verified, Wi-Fi checked like I was prepping for surgery, adrenaline spiking over a virtual queue. Refresh. 9:59am. Refresh. 9:59am. Refresh. 10:00am! Thousands ahead of me. Of course. By the time I got in, the “available” seats weren’t really options, they were concessions. The leftovers. The seats you convince yourself are “fine” because the alternative is staring at Instagram stories the next day and pretending you don’t care.

I clicked anyway.  I had no choice.

Two tickets: $753 each. I winced, but stayed the course.  They were less than $800.  Okay. Then came the fees: $206 per ticket. Fees for what? Taking my money? Existing? Breathing the air of the arena? By the time the total flashed…$1,919…I actually laughed. Not because it was funny, but because what else do you do when you’ve just hyped yourself up and have no other options?

And the seats? Mediocre. Respectfully mid. The kind where you’ll rely heavily on the giant screen and your iPhone.

Somewhere in the middle of my financial spiral, I remembered an old 1993 interview with Nirvana. They were reacting to Madonna charging $50 a ticket, “fifty dollars?!” and were in complete disbelief. Laughing about it.  Shocked about it.  Disgusted by it. Meanwhile, they said they charged about $17 and walked away with maybe $1.25 per ticket after everything was said and done.

Fifty dollars was outrageous?

Seventeen dollars was once the norm?

And here I am, decades later, casually dropping $1,919 for seats that require mild squinting.

What happened in the time between Cobain and Styles?

Concerts used to feel like access to live music. Now they feel like luxury goods.  Are the venues trying to weed out the average fan and cater to only the wealthy? Do the artists have any control of this?

I’ll still go. I’ll still scream every lyric like it’s a religious experience.  Oh, I’ll buy the $75.00 T-shirt, too…but that’s another issue.

But I just don’t understand what shifted in the music scene for concert ticket prices to become so outrageous.  Live music is becoming unattainable.

RIP affordable concerts.  The real fans will miss you.