Music artists have long been subjected to crazed concertgoers hurling various objects at them during performances.
Olivia Rodrigo is the latest musician targeted by a fan who punished her for not accepting their token of appreciation in the form of flowers.
In a viral video, the "Good 4 U" singer was seen greeting a crowd of adoring fans at a venue during a concert stop from her GUTS World Tour.
The 21-year-old singer/songwriter walked by a fan who held out a bouquet. When she didn't stop to accept them, the scorned fan retaliated by chucking the rejected gift directly at her.
Rodrigo flinched from the impact of being thwacked in the head before continuing past the crowd of screaming fans.
You can see a clip of the filmed incident below.
The clip got social media users riled at the atrocious behavior.
In recent years, videos of various airborne objects making their way onto the stage or hitting an artist have gone viral, arousing safety concerns.
Last summer, a fan attending a P!nk concert in London threw a bag of their mother's ashes at the artist's feet. While the bizarre incident didn't cause harm, it sparked outrage over crossing a line and being inappropriate "to impose one’s trauma/grief on someone else."
In contrast, Canadian rapper Drake was showered with gifts...in the form of various bras thrown at him by his female admirers at various performances.
Although the artist wasn't bothered by the adoring gesture, he did ask the crowd on one occasion to refrain from tossing their undergarments because his 5-year-old son, Adonis Graham, was in the audience watching his dad perform for the first time.
Other musicians didn't fare as well from being proverbial sitting ducks. Some artists were injured during these concert etiquette breaches caused by unruly audience members.
Pop star Harry Styles was injured twice from items chucked at him from concertgoers.
He was pegged in the eye by a random item at a concert in Vienna, Austria, which followed a separate incident in which a fan threw Skittles at him that also struck his eye.
Singer/songwriter Bebe Rexha was hospitalized last June after a crowd member at a New York City show threw a cellphone at her, smacking her in the face. The show was cut short as a result.
Kristin Lieb, a marketing professor at Emerson College in Boston commented on the dangerous act of throwing objects at artists.
“People forget pop stars are people," said Lieb, adding the behavior stems from entitlement:
“Audiences think: ‘I paid for this. She needs to do what I want now.’”
While major security and safety rules like banning cellphones at venues to ensure a performer's safety are unlikely, individual artists may opt to institute their own safety measures.
Higher barricades or netting to protect performers from hurled objects could be options if the dangerous trend gets out of control.
Or fans could simply stop throwing things at musical artists.
