Disruptive Audience Performance: The Extremes of the Duet Applauses/Boos

(en anglais seulement)

Antonella Carù, Bernard Cova, Zannie Voss

Antonella Carù is a Professor of Marketing at the Bocconi University in Milan, Italy, where she also serves as Dean for Development and Alumni Relations. Her research focuses on services marketing and the experiential marketing. She is also interested in consumer behaviour and management in contexts pertaining to the arts. 
Bernard Cova is a Professor of Marketing at the Kedge Business School Marseille, France, and a Visiting Professor at the Bocconi University in Milan, Italy. Since the early 1990s, he has participated in postmodernist streams of consumer research and marketing, focusing on a community approach. 
Zannie Voss is a Professor of Arts Management at Southern Methodist University’s Cox School of Business and Meadows School of the Arts in Dallas, Texas, where she serves as Director of SMU DataArts, a national center for arts research. She studies internal and external factors that affect performance of arts organizations.

ABSTRACT
Holbrook and Hirschman’s (1982) pioneering work on the lived experience of consumption in the field of arts and entertainment was a catalyst for investigation of the active role of the audience alongside that of the artists. In this conceptual, paper, we show how audience performances can be positioned on a continuum ranging from applause to boos with each, at their extremes, having disruptive consequences for the performers and the performance. The study of extremes of the applauses/boos duet through a historical perspective followed by a presentation of recent situations allows us to illustrate how these exaggerations generate disorganization of the show and humiliation of the artists. Moreover, these exaggerations attract some spectators that attend to witness the performances of both the artists and their fellow audience members.
KEYWORDS
Audience; Boos; Disruption; Performance; Performers; Standing Ovations.