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Posted

For those of you who haven't gone to a rock concert, moshpitting is when people in the crowd get so worked up from the intensity of the music that they begin to push each other around--FOR FUN!!! I went to a concert the other weekend and it was a blast. I haven't gone to many in my lifetime, maybe about 5 by now, and there's been a few where the moshpits were too intense for me to handle that I had to climb on top of the crowd and be crowd surfed out to safety. However, last weekend, I went to a band that I really really love right now, and their music isn't really aggressive, but does get heavy at times. Normally I would have found my way out, but I was up for standing my ground and keeping my front row spot in the crowd, so I pushed back and really had fun doing it. 

 

I wanted to know what people's thoughts were on this weird phenomonon of "hey, let's actually have fun pushing people around!" without really hurting them (as far as I've seen or experienced). Seems like controlled violence to me, and I wonder is it a sign of dysfunction or simple primal urges to aggress against others? Or if it's anything else entirely, what is it? I just find it odd that this could be fun.

Posted

Hey great topic!

Not sure if it is inherently dysfunctional, but I have also had loads of fun moshing.  These days I am more into more refined styles of dancing, but I can still get down in a pit when I'm in the mood.  I think it may be attractive to people who have not had a great relationship to their own physicality - which is probably an increasingly large portion of the male population.  If you are not into competitive sports as a kid, and you are discouraged or even punished for "rough" play as a kid.  There is dance and theater but that only appeals to a few kids, and boys are mocked for this kind of thing.  So I wonder if it's just a release of pressure, like opening a bottle of soda that has been shaken up, in a society which will not allow boys to be boys, unless they are football players.  I know this was true for me - before getting into sports and yoga and dance I was into moshpits.  But I agree, it's incredibly fun and exhilarating, to the point of intoxication.

In a moshpit, there are no real requirements for physical competency, you don't have to be fast or strong or coordinated, and you are in a crowd so you can "dance like no one is watching".  Furthermore, there is usually a kind of camaraderie, where people try to keep one another from falling, or will help someone up who has fallen.  It is a rare opportunity to play like a child, in a society that would usually frown on such behavior, even for little boys and girls!!!  That said, I have also seen the darker side of moshpits, usually when one or a few seriously disturbed individuals, usually heavily intoxicated, is actively trying to hurt others or themselves, throwing elbows, throwing themselves at bystanders who clearly don't want to be involved.  Usually the crowd will take care of them, but it's scary to see kids involved in such destructive behavior.  And I think the loud, heavy, counter-culture music scenes of punk, metal, hard-rock, etc. tend to attract such people.

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Posted

Actually it takes a ton of cardio to not get out of breath and pass out, so that's something I'd say. But thanks for your thoughts RC! Yeah those darker side of moshpits I don't understand. So I wonder if it goes by degree, or if all moshpits are bound by having a bad relationship with one's own physicality.

Posted

For those of you who haven't gone to a rock concert, moshpitting is when people in the crowd get so worked up from the intensity of the music that they begin to push each other around--FOR FUN!!!

 

 

Being shorter than Napoleon I hate moshpitting as a simple matter of self-defense. I've nearly been squashed like a bug in the past. Last time was seeing the Rev. Horton Heat.

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Posted

I attended a Staind concert at the Cleveland Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the energy in the moshpit is really contagious. Even friends who normally wouldn't dance got into it cause you don't have to worry about looking foolish and everyone is just sharing the joy of the moment. In fact, I'd never seen so many free joints passed around between total strangers.

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Posted

Being shorter than Napoleon I hate moshpitting as a simple matter of self-defense. I've nearly been squashed like a bug in the past. Last time was seeing the Rev. Horton Heat.

 

I'm pretty short too and I usually get destroyed in moshpits...but it's all a matter of simple physics. Whatever position you're thrown in, use those people as like a bungee or a rope like in a wrestling ring to plunge you forward XD

Posted

Actually it takes a ton of cardio to not get out of breath and pass out, so that's something I'd say. But thanks for your thoughts RC! Yeah those darker side of moshpits I don't understand. So I wonder if it goes by degree, or if all moshpits are bound by having a bad relationship with one's own physicality.

Well I think the proliferation of heavier, more energetic music in the 1970s and 80s is in some ways, like I said, a reaction of youth, mostly boys, to being "contained" for most of their lives.  Youthful masculinity has always been a threat to the status quo, and heavy music is one of the few places that disenfranchised and disillusioned young man can channel it without being smashed by the system.  For the most part I think this is healthy, and some great music has come out of it, which despite the dismissal of people who "don't get it", can be soulful, intelligent, and moving, but of course this kind of music can also attract really damaged people, like those I described who can take it from rough but healthy fun, to violence.

 

I actually am writing a song in the style of a band like Motorhead about this very thing.  Here's a sample

 

Blind with rage the untamed underaged they feel betrayed and underpaid

"It's just a phase" says the old-aged sage with fear worn on his leery gaze

But they shake the malaise, smash their slates, they scale the walls and storm the gates,

  they break the chains and loose the horny half-crazed untrained primates from their cage

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Posted

This is such a good topic!

 

I am an amateur compared to you guys with just taking part in one moshpit but being quite tall and stout I had an easier time than the friend I was with that was half my size and weight. He loved it just as much.

We were both from the military and explosive release is a regular theme in the military.

 

The moshpit made me feel both physically and emotionally returned to a state of relative peace afterwards, much better than the typical drink until your brain loses the ability to notice reality. I wonder if its causality that lead to the moshpit?

 

As society gets pressurised through the internet and knowledge, it is forcing society to deal with reality more and more than ever before and so the need for a way to dump that pressure in a fun and safe way gets generated. It's interesting that there are examples of this in so many subcultures, maybe rather than life imitating art or Visa Versa, perhaps art is a reaction to life?

 

The more I think about various things the more I arrive at the conclusion that most of what humans do if not all of what we do is due to existentialism. In my view, there is nothing quite as motivating as an encounter with death and there is no force in nature more creative than death, death is everywhere, always....... I need to go back into the moshpit!

Posted

Great topic!

Although I am not participating in moshpits (perhaps my ovaries are keeping me out) I do feel the enthusiasm and energy around a pit from the people that do participate. I have only seen these camaraderie-type of moshpits, but it made me think of the wall of death. Does that go to the same category? Any thoughts?

 

As for my thoughts, I for some reason find the wall a bit more destructive than a pit. At least physically.

 

-Tweety-

Posted

Wall of Death, followed by a circle pit:



Interesting discussion!  I have been working in heavy music as a live sound engineer and as a record producer.  While I have no data to back this claim, I think there is an intrinsic joy among people of to mimic war.  Being in a mosh pit feels like going to battle in pajamas and wielding pillows.  Yes, many people get hurt, but it is far more common to see people picking others up off the ground than throwing punches.
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