The five members of K-pop boy band Cortis walk into stage in casual, streetwear-inspired attire as they begin their worldwide tour in the South Korean city of Incheon. It’s giving off an effortlessly cool attitude.
“Set down your phone,” yells one of the members. Sharp shouts break out. The back is a sea of glowing displays.He says again, more loudly, “I told you, put your phone down.”
While some supporters do precisely that, thousands of phones remain in the air and the stadium is filled with applause.
Cortis puts phones at the center of its concert message
It is hard to put into words how serious this dramatic instruction is. “Put your phone down” is also the theme of Cortis’s current concert tour.
That can started in Incheon on July 18 and will visit locations including New York and Los Angeles before returning to Seoul later this month.
The refrain reflects the band’s longstanding advocacy for fans to engage with their performances in person as opposed to watching them on six-inch screens.
Although fan-filmed videos are a significant social currency in K-pop, their fan base has responded to them in different ways.
Park Ji-yeon was one individual who couldn’t stop recording Cortis’s performances.
The 22-year-old had expressly rented a brand-new, expensive smartphone for the two days of the Cortis performance.
Why Cortis fans are divided over filming
“I was standing right at the front, and I couldn’t bring myself to put my phone down. That’s why I don’t know if I’ll ever get this opportunity again,” she says. Since many of those memories will go as soon as I leave the venue, I often record performances.
Some responded to the band’s request, while fans like Park kept filming. Seated in the amphitheater-style arena, Kim Ga-eun, 25, witnessed everything.The people dancing together in the rear of the standing area were having a blast.
That, in my opinion, truly captured the concert’s goal,” she explains.
FilmMagic Five members of a boyband playing on a stage while sporting trousers and jacketsFilmMagic via Getty Images
The phrase “colour outside the lines” is the source of the band’s name, Cortis, which, according to their record label, is intended to capture the band’s unconventional spirit and refusal to follow social norms. Which in this instance seems to include advising fans to resist the allure of the phone camera.
They are part of a global movement of well-known artists who have been promoting the same.
Singers like Alicia Keys and Phoebe Bridgers have mandated that attendees of their concerts wear lock pouches. Which are zippered bags that let people keep their phones without being able to access them.
Cortis joins other artists asking fans to put phones away
Few have gone as far as British rock band Suede, whose leader Brett Anderson jumped over a barrier to seize fans’ phones during a concert in Singapore in 2023.
During a concert in Amsterdam, Billie Eilish softly said to her front row audience, “Put your phone down, I’m right here.”
Eilish has justified videography as a method for fans to relive priceless experiences after an event.
Similar demands have even been made by K-pop’s golden boys, BTS. “Avoid staring at the screen of your phone.
At one show, BTS member Jungkook baited the crowd, saying, “Just look at me.” From the artists’ point of view, engaging with fans is a crucial aspect of performance. That’s why I believe they want people to pay more attention to that than to their phones.”
Why phone-free concerts are becoming a bigger discussion
For instance, among K-pop communities, fancams—zoom-in films of a particular celebrity—are highly valued.
When they are posted online, fans carefully examine the choreography and take pleasure in seeing their favorite band members’ nuanced gestures and facial expressions.
These clips continue to be used as inspiration for fan-made montages and group swooning.
Because of this, Cortis’s constant pleas for fans to put down their phones have angered some in a fandom that is fixated on documenting every event.
Fans sent angry remarks on social media on the first day of their performance.
Park says, “I spent over one million won ($700; £520) attending both days,” alluding to the total of not just concert tickets .
Public reaction to the phone message
“I think a lot of fans spent similar amounts of money, so constantly hearing them asking us to put our phones down made some fans even more frustrated.”
Fans claim that Cortis dialed down their message on the second day of the performance after hearing these whispers.
The theme on the first day was more along the lines of “Let’s put our phones down and have fun together.”
“We understand why you want to film, so let’s just make sure we enjoy ourselves together.” Kim remembers the little adjustment on the second day.
