On Jan. 16, 2026, Harry Styles announced his fourth studio album, “Kiss All The Time. Disco, Occasionally,” along with a corresponding album tour, “Together, Together.” This announcement was highly anticipated among fans eager to relive his previous venture, “Love on Tour,” which spanned from Sep. 4, 2021, through July 22, 2023. While there have been more monumental tours in recent years, like Taylor Swift's “Eras” tour and Beyonce’s “Cowboy Carter” tour, “Love on Tour” changed a lot of the ways younger concert goers interact with the medium.
In 2021, “Love on Tour” was one of the first major arena events after the COVID-19 pandemic. With Harry Styles’ fanbase being predominantly teenagers and young adults, this made it one of the first big concerts that they would have attended, meaning it set the standard for what a tour should look like for many younger people.
The most prominent cultural shift towards concerts is the participatory nature that attendees have adopted. Through themed outfits and choreographed crowd moments, the inclusion of the audience in the experience, rather than simply being viewers, became the standard. “Love on Tour” outfits specifically changed the way that fans of popular tours dress for shows. One-use, fast-fashion outfits are now the standard wear for concerts among younger audiences. Plastic sunglasses, feather boas, and sequined bodysuits were the “Love on Tour” uniform. The trend reflected a broader shift toward concerts as content‑creation spaces, where fans dressed not only for the artist but for the photos, videos and social media posts that would document their attendance. The pressure to appear “on theme” for a single night fueled a micro‑economy of disposable fashion, reinforcing the idea that participation required constant consumption.
This participatory value reflected the broader shift in concert behavior. In the pit, fans often treated the space less like a viewing area and more like a club. Viral social media clips showed attendees dancing with their backs to the stage, using the arena as a collective dance floor. During his performance of “Treat People With Kindness,” fans in the back of the pit frequently formed conga lines, reinforcing the idea of a concert as an immersive social event.
These fan-led interactions helped shape the tour’s branding as a “community space.” Styles leaned into the parasocial dynamics of fandom, frequently engaging in intimate, personalized interactions that circulated widely online. He read a fan’s final exam grades aloud, performed a couple’s gender reveal, and regularly paused the show to converse with audience members. These moments cultivated the sense that the tour fostered a personal relationship between Styles and his fans.
One example of this parasocial entitlement can be found in a now-deleted viral TikTok from creator Taraswrld, who lamented about “having” to spend $10,000 on concert tickets. These tickets were for the tour date nicknamed “Harryween,” which took place over Halloween. This event was a big deal to fans who were eager to celebrate with Styles. Tara goes on to tell the story that she spent $2,000 on pit tickets through Stubhub, but hours before the concert, the tickets still had not made it to her inbox. When offered replacement balcony tickets from Stubhub, Tara, explaining how those would not work for her, stated, “I’m finna be in the pit.” She continued to explain how she desperately searched online for second-hand tickets, causing her to spend $10,000 on resold pit tickets.
This parasocial closeness, paired with the participatory concept of concerts, led fans to create an environment in which they dressed to be noticed, performed to be filmed, and interacted in ways that made the concert feel like a shared social ritual rather than a traditional performance. Through this, “Love on Tour” became a blueprint for a new kind of concert culture where personal visibility was just as central to the experience as the music itself.
These behaviors have been prominent in tours since, but most prominently during Taylor Swift’s “Eras Tour.” Friendship bracelets, color-coded costumes, and coordinated chants all became parts of audience participation, reinforcing the idea that attending a concert now requires preparation, performance, and a willingness to be seen. These parallels highlight how Styles has influenced the way that pop fans interact with live music.
With the parasocial intimacy that Styles has cultivated throughout his solo career, the expectation has been set that emotional access is a part of the ticket price. For many fans, the possibility of being noticed is as important as hearing him sing. This dynamic fuels the idea that it is important to dress to stand out and to perform enthusiastically in a way that might capture attention. The concert has become an audition for connection.
These popularized aspects from “Love on Tour,” the fast-fashion, participatory performance, and parasocial closeness, have redefined what it means to attend a pop concert. They have created a cultural ecosystem in which visibility, creativity and emotional vulnerability are central to the experience. As “Together, Together” begins in May, it will be interesting to see how this culture further develops, or if it has reached a point of saturation, where the expectations Styles helped create begin to outpace the experience itself.
The Student Movement is the official student newspaper of Andrews University. Opinions expressed in the Student Movement are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the editors, Andrews University or the Seventh-day Adventist church.