24 Analysing Prosumer Behaviours in Digital Fandom: Fan Participation with the ‘Mute Challenge’ During Beyoncé’s Renaissance Tour on Twitter.
Solomon Mike
Introduction
In the grandeur of a stadium bathed in a sea of twinkling lights, Beyoncé, queen of her hive, stood center stage, commanding the attention of thousands of adoring fans. The air buzzed with anticipation as the “Renaissance” world tour reached its zenith. Little did the audience know that within the next few minutes, a spontaneous act would transcend the boundaries of the concert hall, etching a new chapter in the book of participatory cultural phenomena. As the crescendo of the performance reached its peak, Beyoncé, adorned in dazzling attire, raised her hand, signalling a moment of profound silence. The crowd, usually a symphony of cheers and applause, felt the shift in the atmosphere. The pulsating beats of the song “Energy” lingered in the air, and then came the words, “Look around, everybody on mute.”
Little did the concertgoers know that this ephemeral pause was destined to outlive the confines of the stadium. As the tour progressed, videos of the “mute” challenge began to surface online. Social media platforms became the stage for a new act in this unfolding drama. Fans worldwide embraced the challenge, replicating the hushed interlude and sharing their renditions with a global audience (People, 2023). Celebrities joined the chorus, transforming the Beyoncé Mute Challenge into a cultural touchstone. In Los Angeles, Vanessa Bryant, Natalie Bryant, Zendaya, and Tom Holland became not just spectators but active participants, lending their star power to the growing phenomenon (Richardson, 2023). Social media platforms were excited as fans, much like a global choir, engaged in the challenge, each rendition adding a unique note to the evolving melody.
This paper explores how this moment of nothingness echoed throughout the world. A part of the answer lies with the concepts of participatory culture, digital fandom and prosumer, which will require a thorough survey of the literature. Another part of the answer is found in the interplay of the physical and the digital, as realities that constantly oscillate and feed off each other, in the emergence of fandom and celebrity, but also, as we will see, political power. Indeed, the contemporary landscape of cultural phenomena is increasingly characterized by the intricate dance between the physical and digital realms. In this age of connectivity, the power of social media and digital platforms to shape and amplify real-world experiences is unparalleled. In the dynamic narrative of the Beyoncé Mute Challenge, our exploration unfolds like a dance between two realms – the palpable and the digital. Commencing with the real-world hush within the concert hall, we unravel the challenge’s origins, a momentary pause reverberating into a global spectacle, building on prosumer and participatory culture concepts. As we ascend into the digital sphere, the challenge transcends boundaries, transforming the concert into a global phenomenon. For this part, we will also consult literature on digital community building and fandom and look at reactions emanating from the community itself. Lastly, the story takes a riveting turn back to tangible reality, as different cities engage in a spirited competition for the quietest audience, and the challenge is applied to classrooms. This real-to-digital-to-real journey taken by Beyonce’s fandom, and consequently, our argument, will interrogate us, in the conclusion on the nature of the queen’s celebrity.
Prosumption at Beyonce’s concert
In this first part, we build the link between Beyonce’s concert and the moment in which she paused everything and muted the audience, with the concept of presumption, thus crafting the first step in our argument, in the real world. The “Beyoncé Mute Challenge” is a compelling case study in prosumption dynamics, showcasing the intricate interplay between production and consumption. Within the framework of prosumption, and quite evidently, Beyoncé takes on the role of the producer, crafting a concert experience that goes beyond conventional boundaries. Nobody doubts that Beyonce is the artist in that concert hall and beyond, no matter the angle from which one endeavours to approach this. But then, her deliberate creation of the “mute” moment in the song “Energy” transforms the audience from passive consumers into active contributors to a specific facet of the show, which they already were before, through the opposite practices of shouting and dancing along their favourite singers’ anthems. But in this case, the unconventionality of embarking the crowd into a silent segment of the show certainly requires an even stronger involvement.
Indeed, according to Ritzer (2014), who coined the term, prosumption, is the merging of production and consumption. It encapsulates the contemporary phenomenon where individuals actively create and consume goods or content. This concept has become markedly pronounced, especially in the digital landscape, as seen in activities ranging from managing Facebook pages and contributing to Wikipedia entries to placing orders on platforms like Amazon.com. The multifaceted nature of prosumption raises intriguing questions about its origin and nature. Is it a recent behavioural evolution, a revolutionary concept, or a practice deeply ingrained in human behaviour throughout history? Grinnell (2009) articulates the shift in the paradigm of media participation and consumption, which they termed “Web revolution (a binary opposition to Web 1.0) or a Web evolution (a consequence of a more fully implemented Web)” (p. 596). Grinnell further explained that Web 2.0 is more than just cool gadgets, hot tools, and great services, even though some are very important. At its core are strong ideas changing how people talk to each other. Some of these ideas aren’t just found in Web 2.0; they come from the power of the network itself, from the effects and structures that a billion Internet users create on a small and large scale (Grinnell, 2019, p. 596). However, The reality suggests that it is a fusion of all three. Beyond a mere analytical framework, understanding prosumption necessitates a paradigm shift, prompting us to reevaluate much of what we conventionally categorize as either production or consumption. As the audience partakes in the concert experience, their role extends beyond consumption to active participation, particularly during the Mute Challenge. Here, the audience becomes vital in producing a shared experience, responding collectively to Beyoncé’s directive. This active involvement exemplifies the essence of prosumption – a reciprocal relationship where consumption and contribution intertwine seamlessly.
The Beyoncé Mute Challenge embodies prosumption dynamics and aligns with the principles of participatory culture. Theoretically, the point could be made that prosumption is inherently a byproduct of this participatory culture which exists limitlessly through social media. The consumer of consumers being also producers is not new in marketing, where consumers parade like walking publicity objects, with brands masking their bodies. In the realm of participatory culture, audiences are not confined to the role of mere consumers; they actively shape and contribute to the cultural narrative. Henry Jenkins originally developed the concept (Foster, 2023). He defined it as having low barriers to artistic expression, strong support for sharing creations, informal mentorship, and a sense of social connection among participants. Over the years, Jenkins has refined his definition, highlighting that participatory culture involves large numbers of people, from various walks of life, having the capacity to produce and share media. His work underscores the evolving role of audiences from passive consumers to active contributors in shaping the cultural landscape. In the context of Beyoncé’s Mute Challenge, Jenkins’s concepts come to life as the audience not only consumes but actively produces a shared experience within the concert venue and across digital platforms (Bird, 2011). In response to Beyoncé’s cue, fans engage in a collective act of participation, showcasing the transformative power of participatory culture within the concert context.
Then, their fandom is expressed through consumption and participation, hence Jenkin’s concept of participatory fandom (Foster, 2023). This concept refers to fans not merely consuming content but actively participating in and contributing to creating and circulating that content. Then, it directly ties into the concepts of participatory culture, which is best embodied by the prosumers that we described earlier. In the context of the Mute moment, fans are not passive spectators but actively engage with the concert experience. Further, the fans collectively contribute to producing a unique moment within the concert. The shared experience of going mute in sync with fellow audience members fosters a sense of community and collective participation. Ultimately, the fans create a common culture. The Mute moment becomes a cultural phenomenon, uniting the group of fans around a shared experience.
This collective act of participation fosters a sense of community and contributes to creating a shared cultural narrative, embodying the principles of participatory fandom. The Mute moment becomes a cultural phenomenon, uniting fans around a shared experience and highlighting the evolving role of audiences from passive consumers to active contributors in shaping the cultural landscape. But this phenomenon went past any physical barrier and is not contained by the material bounds of the stadium, nor is the experience or sense of community reserved to those who attended. The physical reality of the mute moment found an incredible and growing echo in the digital world that made it the viral movement that we now refer to as the ‘mute challenge,’ and that resonates throughout the media world from the tabloids (People, 2023; Richardson, 2023; TMZ, 2023) to the well-renown mainstream and serious media (ABC, 2023).
Prosumption beyond the stage and the concert: the birth of digital fandom communities.
The Beyoncé Mute Challenge extends beyond the physical concert experience and becomes a trend that permeates social media, online platforms, and the digital realm. It continues and grows way beyond the stage. Understanding why such a growing impact was launched during and especially after the concert in an almost transcendental way requires coming back to an inherent reality of humanity, which O’Boyle ingeniously reminds us of (2022): human communicators as produsers (a combination of ‘producer’ and ‘user’). Thus, it is not much of a rational decision to communicate what we see, hear, or do, and we do it spontaneously due to our being inherently social creatures and sharing our emotions. Thanks to social media, and the fact that we are constantly connected to the internet, it is not only faster to share our emotions and feelings, or simply our lived realities with our ‘friends’ and potentially even with the whole world depending on the kind of platform we are, or in Foster’s terms, how good we are as prosumers, but at heart nothing has changed from our inherent desire and need to share our emotions and stories irrespective of the technological advancements that have facilitated these interactions. The Beyoncé Mute Challenge, as a product of this era, perfectly embodies this innate human inclination to participate, share, and contribute to the collective narrative. Social media made the emergence of larger digital communities that transcend material boundaries possible.
Fans build digital communities through active engagement and shared participation, leveraging the power of social media and online platforms. The Beyoncé Mute Challenge, emerging from the concert experience, catalyzes the creation of these digital communities. Fans, having collectively participated in the unique challenge, extend their connection beyond the physical concert venue to digital spaces, acting as relays between the physical realm and the online one. By doing so, they also extended the invite to the show (and thus that unique moment of silence) with people around the world. (Repici, 2008)
On social media platforms like Twitter, Instagram, and TikTok, fans share their experiences, videos, and posts about the Mute Challenge. The shared hashtag, likely created to accompany the challenge, becomes a virtual meeting point for fans to converge and contribute. Digital communities emerge as fans interact with each other, comment on posts, and share their interpretations of the challenge. Initially rooted in the real-world concert experience, the challenge now takes on a new life in the digital realm, creating a sense of community among participants. Sharing, commenting, and engaging in discussions about the challenge creates a shared digital space where fans feel connected to one another. The participatory culture, as conceptualized by Henry Jenkins, comes to life as fans not only consume content but actively contribute to the ongoing narrative. This digital community, born out of a shared experience in the physical world, demonstrates the transformative potential of the intersection between the real and digital realms. It showcases how a singular moment in a concert can evolve into a global phenomenon, connecting fans across geographical boundaries and providing them a platform to shape the cultural conversation actively.
The inherent nature of humans as produsers/prosumers drive the inclination to share, leading to the construction of digital communities that encapsulate fandom. As O’Boyle (2022) suggests, this propensity to communicate and share is not solely a rational decision but a spontaneous expression of our social nature. In the contemporary digital landscape, the convenience and speed afforded by social media enable individuals to share their experiences, emotions, and stories with a vast audience, potentially reaching the entire world, as Foster (2023) describes the effectiveness of prosumers. Interestingly, this shift of fandom’s expression and related community building to the digital world is not limited to the world of music. In our digital era, sports team support has also transitioned significantly to online platforms, and the dynamics of fandom have experienced a profound transformation (Kennedy and Gonzalez, 2022). This shift is emblematic of the broader trend wherein fans no longer rely on physical attendance or in-person congregation to share their experiences; instead, they seamlessly engage with their favorite teams and fellow fans through various digital mediums. The ease with which sports enthusiasts tweet, text, Snap, and Instagram during a game illustrates the new and enriched fan experience enabled by digital connectivity. Kennedy and Gonzalez (2022) have shown that fans have very similar behaviours in the physical and digital world. At heart, the difference is the ease with which emotions linked to a certain event are shared through social media and the ease in reaching global audiences of like-minded fans.
As sports fans effortlessly create digital communities to share their passion, the Beyoncé Mute Challenge provides another compelling example of how online spaces are a fertile ground for vibrant and immediate connections. Fans, brought together by a shared experience during the concert, transcend geographical boundaries to form a cohesive digital community. This contrasts the traditional challenges of creating real-life communities, where physical presence and proximity play defining roles. In sum, Kennedy and Gonzalez (2022) remind us of the ease with which digital platforms amplify the building of fandom-driven communities in music or in sports, in stadiums and throughout the world. The key component of this worldwide adoption and replication of this challenge then, besides Beyonce’s fame, is social media and how algorithms can turn content into viral trends. But that is not all, it is also owing to the diversity of the fans and of their thoughts and reactions that enable the challenges to reach all types of audiences and conquer the world. The Beyoncé Mute Challenge, found its wings on social media platforms, taking flight through the captivating expressions of fans worldwide. Tweets like ‘MUTE challenge CLEARED! Tampa, you delivered,’ (@Themba Langa) shows the fervor of participants (here, in Tampa), transforming the challenge into a shared happy moment across digital spaces. In another tweet, a fan (@Dani Jo) drew parallels between Beyoncé’s orchestration of the mute challenge and the ingenious techniques employed by teachers, humorously stating, ‘Beyoncé treating the mute challenge like teachers do when they start counting. ‘This clever comparison not only adds a touch of humor to the challenge but also gives the challenge another dimension, more real, more practical, something that everyone knows and echoes their childhood: the professor attempting to get some silence to deliver their lecture. This appeals to everyone and resonates with diverse audiences. This is a great example of a prosumer opening up the challenge onto new horizons that it was probably not intended to reach originally. Through the act of production, the prosumer (@Dani Jo) gives an extra meaning to the challenge that contributes to its growth.
Furthermore, the involvement of various celebrities and stars in the challenge added an extra layer of amplification. As high-profile media celebrities and influencers engaged in the Mute Challenge, their participation catalyzed a cascading effect, reaching audiences who might have yet to be initially connected to the concert experience. The challenge evolved into a cultural phenomenon, with stars like Tom Holland, Zendaya and Lupita Nyong’o contributing to its narrative and fostering a sense of collective participation as they incite their fans to partake and become part of the ever-growing digital community (@Lupitanyongo).
Undeniably, the very nature of the challenge, framed as a call to action (because that is the nature of a challenge: people must submit themselves to it and attempt to succeed), spurred replication and engagement. Tweets such as ‘Renaissance World Tour mute challenge accepted’ (@Lupitanyongo) go on to show the challenge’s replicable quality, as it invites people to join in and create their interpretations. The term ‘challenge’ itself implies a call for emulation, and users on social media enthusiastically responded, sharing their unique renditions and fueling the challenge’s exponential growth. One attendee at the Atlanta show even initiated a sort of competition, as she tweeted, ‘Atlanta definitely had the BEST “Mute” (@MasinElije), another element that might make a challenge reverberate around the world. In essence, these tweets encapsulate the multifaceted dynamics of the Beyoncé Mute Challenge on social media – from celebratory declarations of success to clever comparisons, celebrity engagement, and the challenge’s inherent replicability, each contributing to its undeniable virality and global resonance. Digital communities, particularly evident in the Beyoncé Mute Challenge, serve as a powerful venue for prosumers of her (us all, humans), enabling widespread sharing, collaboration, and collective influence beyond the physical event. The challenge’s global resonance on social media exemplifies the transformative capacity of digital spaces to amplify the voices of prosumers and progressively include the whole world in a challenge like Beyonce’s.
Return to and impact on the physical world and society.
The Beyoncé Mute Challenge, having transcended its origins in the physical concert space to become a digital sensation, seamlessly integrates into the real world with very important consequences. As it constantly oscillates between the real and digital worlds, tirelessly gaining in intensity and impact, it impacts the real world and society after leaving the concert hall to become digital.
Indeed, the challenge takes on an extended competitive element as it transforms into a city competition, fostering fan engagement both in the physical and digital realms (Richardson, 2023). This city-wise competition unfolds on social media platforms, providing fans from various locations with an interactive and playful space to compete for the title of the quietest city online. Fans showcase their enthusiasm and creativity, participating in the challenge and actively promoting it within their respective communities. Having gained immense traction on digital platforms, the challenge now becomes a catalyst for friendly competition among fans from different cities, as we remember some twits that had already emerged. Social media, which initially served as a virtual meeting point for fans, has now evolved into an arena where the impact of the challenge on physical spaces and communities is palpable.
Further, however, the challenge does more than navigate the interplay of the physical and digital realms, it sometimes fully reintegrates the former and contributes to social change in a unique way. Teachers have been reporting using the mute challenge to get some quiet in the classroom to proceed with their teaching activities. The use of the challenge is then multiple. Firstly, it creates a fun way for students to seek silence, which is rare. Then, it makes them feel like being silent can truly be a ‘cool’ thing that inserts them into a worldwide community initiated by Beyonce. Lastly, it catalyzes Beyonce’s fame towards enabling better and more effective knowledge transmission and education.
For example, Atlanta first-grade teacher Amber Drummond recognized the potential of the “mute” concept as a novel way to capture her students’ attention (Spiller, 2023). Implementing a modified “call and response” technique, Drummond successfully integrated the challenge into her classroom routine. She introduced the concept of “mute” to her first-grade students, who quickly adapted to the new method. The teacher’s surprise at the success of the challenge highlights its versatility and applicability beyond the concert setting. Sharing her innovative approach on social media, Drummond celebrated the achievement of her talkative group of students, emphasizing the effectiveness of the #teachermutechallenge (@braids_grades_repeat). The video showcased the challenge’s entertainment value due to its being the gateway to being part of a worldwide online community and its unexpected practicality in ensuring attentiveness among young learners. This real-world impact further cements the Beyoncé Mute Challenge as a participatory cultural phenomenon with far-reaching consequences, extending its influence from concert halls to classrooms through the digital world. By refurbishing the challenge and turning it into something new, this teacher is, too, becoming a prosumer, who in turn, reinvigorates the challenge by reporting her advancement with this new Beyonce-inherited methodology on social media.
Conclusion
First, let us summarize the many things this abrupt silence has been, alternating through the physical and digital realms. After starting off as a bizarre concert feature, a challenge and then a competition, this element of participatory culture becomes a teaching method. Through its constant meaning giving and reappropriation by prosumers and as an incredibly vibrant and sensitive piece of participatory culture launched by Beyonce but no longer owned by her, this moment of silence, has travelled through the physical and digital worlds, gaining meaning and strength from everyone that would interact with it and participate to its constant movement. The very nature of these elements of participatory culture ties into it constant movement: when it stops, it dies, probably in the wake of another challenge that captures the digital world’s eyes and hearts. This triggers a question as to the nature of Beyonce’s fame.
Through participatory culture, she is more than a celebrity. She becomes political. She starts a movement that impacts society and enacts change, as illustrated by using the challenge in school classes. However, while Lady Gaga uses her platform to influence her fans’ political behaviours and voting intentions in the most direct manner, as Click, Lee and Holladay explained, Beyonce’s political influence is indirect and directly caused by participatory culture. By giving meaning to the challenge she started, which is apolitical, fans have turned it into an instrument for social change. Undoubtedly, political partisans can also use it to fly high their colours and mute the others, for example. Potentially, in the reverse scenario, it can revitalize voices long lost to the supreme hegemony of a narrative that has thoroughly muted them. Certainly, temporarily muting this dominant voice could enable the ‘subaltern voices’ of our colonial societies (to use Spivak’s eloquent words) to resurge and shed light on stories and perspectives that are almost never heard. Beyonce might have, but not even thanks to her, created an instrument of decolonization. Participatory culture is to be thankful for that and all the prosumers who give some of their time and meaning to the worldwide online community.
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Appendix
Dani Jo [@Dani Jo]. (2023). [Tweet]. Twitter. Retrieved from https://twitter.com/thedailydanni/status/1691457029297287169?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1691457029297287169%7Ctwgr%5E032d02d643a2d283d8b30d7a0b7f82a8c6e13a9f%7Ctwcon%5Es1_c10&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fiframe.nbcnews.com%2FwEK6Vpg%3F_showcaption%3Dtrueapp%3D1
Drummond [@braids_grades_repeat]. (2023). [Instagram post]. Instagram. Retrieved from https://www.instagram.com/reel/CwAe7s9r4SZ/?utm_source=ig_embed&ig_rid=dcae7828-a3f5-47c0-9e16-01d5174664bf
Lupita Nyong’o [@Lupitanyongo]. (2023). [TikTok post]. TikTok. Retrieved From https://www.tiktok.com/@lupitanyongo/video/7275874618500468011
MasinElije [@MasinElije]. (2023). [Tweet]. Twitter. Retrieved from https://x.com/MasinElije/status/1690902250921570304?s=20
Themba Langa [@Themba Langa]. (2023). [Tweet]. Twitter. Retrieved from https://x.com/Themba003/status/1692313960798642626?s=20
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Richardson, R. (2023, September 7). What is Beyoncé’s ‘mute’ challenge? How 1 line became a concert phenomenon. Retrieved from https://www.today.com/popculture/music/beyonce-mute-challenge-meme-explained-rcna103831
Spiller, M. (2023, October 7). ‘Look Around, Everybody on Mute’: Teachers Using Beyoncé’s Mute Challenge with Their Grade School Students. *The Black Enterprise*. Retrieved from https://www.blackenterprise.com/beyonce-mute-challenge-in-classrooms/
TMZ. (2023). BEYONCÉ FAN SMACKED FOR MAKING NOISE AT CONCERT… Obey the ‘Mute Challenge!!’ Retrieved from https://www.tmz.com/2023/09/26/beyonce-fan-hit-concert-makes-noise-mute-challenge/