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For Krug it’s worth it. He’s responsible for most of the concerts at Yankee Stadium and says that between baseball and the NYCFC soccer matches the venue hosts, he can only plan one or two per year, usually a big artist like Paul McCartney or Madonna. “So that’s one of the reasons that we’re a little bit, say, picky or particular about who it is,” he says, “because we really want to make sure we have the best possible artist for that small window that we have.”
Like the Knicks’ win, the World Cup, and maybe even Swift’s wedding, Jay-Z’s anniversary shows indicate an appreciation of IRL events, of the collective experience of watching live music or an NBA team’s ticker-tape parade.
A recent survey by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra found that 78 percent of respondents believed live performance was one aspect of the arts where “AI will not touch human creativity.” Meanwhile, artists like Phoebe Bridgers are also opting for smartphone-free shows in order to keep their concerts more intimate.
The mini-residency is also just the latest in a series of local events planned for the anniversaries of Reasonable Doubt and The Blueprint. In the leadup to the Yankee Stadium gigs, Jay-Z partnered with Spotify for a takeover of parts of the New York City subway, worked with Brooklyn Public Library on special “JAŸ-Z30” library cards, and set up a pop-up shop in Dumbo in a warehouse that was featured in the video for “Dead Presidents.”
People are hungering for authenticity, says Isra Ali, a professor of media, culture, and communication at NYU Steinhardt, and in that environment, “the value of in-person contact goes up.” Jay-Z’s anniversary shows, then, are a chance for one of the biggest, most seemingly untouchable artists in the world to connect with a hometown crowd.
