Filming Concerts On A Nintendo DS Is 2024’s Best (And Worst) Music Trend
By Derrick Rossignol,
14 hours ago
Phones are incredible.
At 13 years old, I would start downloading a 3-minute MP3 file on the family computer, and I would actually have to wait multiple minutes for it to be finished (and my parents would have a fresh virus to deal with). If you told me then what a phone (not even a computer, a phone ) from 2024 could do, I would have dropped my Nintendo DS in amazement.
Phones now are essentially all-in-one pocket computers, and the “all” includes a camera. The cameras have gotten fantastic, too: You may have heard that the upcoming movie 28 Years Later was filmed on an iPhone 15 .
Consequently, we use our phone cameras a lot, to capture fun and important moments in our lives. At the last concert you went to, you definitely saw dozens of phones being held in the air. Strangely, it’s possible that you also saw at least one DS.
(If some of my word choices so far have made the gamers reading this angry: These days, “DS” is often thrown around as a general term to refer to all the different models in the Nintendo DS, and even 3DS, line. The original Nintendo DS and the DS Lite, though, do not have cameras. The DSi, DSi XL, and all 3DS systems, meanwhile, do. So, please know that I know that, but for simplicity’s sake, I’m just going to call everything a DS or 3DS when the specific model isn’t known.)
In a technical sense, the low-resolution photos and videos produced by the DS/3DS are the worst. Here’s a 3DS video from an Anamanaguchi concert in 2021 . The video has little detail, and the audio sounds like a menacing alien spaceship landing. At the same time, the low quality can have a nostalgic 2000s appeal. Or, if you’re into doing silly and fun things, shooting with a DS in 2024 is a silly and fun thing. In that sense, the photos and videos are the best.
For those reasons, we have ourselves a trend. Here’s somebody filming with a DS at a Rina Sawayama concert in 2022. Here’s somebody doing the same thing at a Tyler The Creator show that year. Here’s a DS at a 2022 Charli XCX gig.
The trend is holding strong in 2024, too. It got some notable exposure recently, when Chappell Roan noticed an audience member with a DS and said with a smile, “B*tch, is that a DS? You keep taking photos on your DS.”
Get updates delivered to you daily. Free and customizable.
It’s essential to note our commitment to transparency:
Our Terms of Use acknowledge that our services may not always be error-free, and our Community Standards emphasize our discretion in enforcing policies. As a platform hosting over 100,000 pieces of content published daily, we cannot pre-vet content, but we strive to foster a dynamic environment for free expression and robust discourse through safety guardrails of human and AI moderation.
Comments / 0