The PR-Fuelled Psychology Of FOMO

Something probably most of you don’t know is that I actually went into PR with the intent to start a career in the music industry. My first kind of work experience was when I joined up with a music management company to help promote new and upcoming indie bands on their books. For a while, I genuinely thought that was the career for me.

Stay until the end for a surprise!

But, despite circumstances taking me on a different path, one of my great loves in life asides from books and reading is still music. I have one of the most diverse ranges you’ve probably ever known, next to nothing is off limits when it comes to my playlists, and I absolutely adore seeing bands and artists live.

So this blog is a bit different from usual, because something I’ve found profoundly interesting over the last few months is how I’ve gone from being completely indifferent towards a band, to being on the verge of devastated that I’m probably not going to get to ever see them live.

That band is Coldplay, and I wanted to talk about them today.

How Coldplay Convinced Me I Must See Them Live

I’m sure I’m not the only one to notice Coldplay fans popping up here there and everywhere as of late. They’ve always been a band I’ve really liked and a lot of their songs are brill. What I’m also definitely not saying is that this multi-grammy and GAFFA-winning band is only just becoming popular. But, I do feel like at least half of the people I follow on Instagram were at their most recent tour, and it’s not something I’d noticed before this year.

Why is this? And why do I suddenly find myself desperate to go too?

I love psychology and the way it influences the practice of PR. When I completed my Diploma in the subject in 2020, something I learned and remain interested in is our primal animal instincts and how they shape our everyday decisions even now.

“Social animals learn to meet their needs by watching others. Seeking what others have is the core survival strategy of the animal brain.” AKA, because I’ve seen loads of other people having the time of their lives at Coldplay, I have big-time FOMO (fear of missing out) and regret not grabbing tickets to their next tour.

The way the band put together their most recent performance was unlike anything I’ve seen before, the use of wristbands to create SFX throughout the crowd to really get them involved is simply genius, not to mention the quirky environmental modifications made to their shows such as dancefloors that generate kinetic energy to power performances. This kind of stuff is super shareable on social media, and creates that “I want to be there!” feeling amongst people that aren’t. It’s really cool.

Talking of the band’s next tour brings me to another reason I think I suddenly want to see Coldplay live after years of being totally apathetic towards them. The finality of it all. Frontman Chris Martin has spoken out before about his concerns about the climate damage that touring does, plus it’s already been announced that Coldplay won’t produce any new music after 2025. That brings about the very real possibility that any tour could be their last. Doesn’t that just make it feel so much more valuable?

Finally, with the emergence of two pretty new social media platforms: TikTok and BeReal, performers like Coldplay lend themselves to content creation that relishes in popularity. The light shows I mentioned earlier were covered so much on TikTok I almost felt like I was there in person when scrolling my FYP. This once again not only creates but reinforces that desire of wanting to go and enjoy something that someone else is… Because it just looks so good.

As I said at the beginning, Coldplay have been an incredibly successful and brilliant band for years, but I do think that their admiration has been bolstered a little by these new social media platforms that are dangling them in front of new audiences, and older ones like me that just needed an extra nudge of encouragement too. Other artists like Harry Styles and Billie Eilish have enjoyed a similar boost in fame for the same reason, I think. I find myself desperately wanting to see them live too now… Shock!

Perhaps a blog for another day? Let me know what you think as I know this is a topic a little left field for me but I LOVE music and I adore writing, so it might end up being a match made in heaven.

Bonus tidbit: I actually started out my blogging life with an embarrassingly tragic music website that I started during university. I don’t think I ever showed it to anybody so I probably racked up about 4 visitors on my web counter, but that’s fine by me. PR blogging is a much better gig anyway 😉