Akon Tossing Fan Off Stage Wasn't All Bad

Fans getting pushed and tossed off stage at concerts is nothing new in the music world. Recently music star Akon, who was born Aliaune Thiam, pleaded guilty to a harassment charge for tossing a fan off stage. There seems to be a misunderstanding amongst people who attend concerts. Two things that could potentially get a person hurt at a concert are, climbing up on the stage in the middle of a show, and throwing things at the performers. Do these things give performers the right to threaten or physically hurt one of their fans? One would really have to put themselves in the shoes of those who have had something like this happen, during one of their performances.

In the case of Akon, a fan threw something at him while he was onstage. One could argue that he could have let it go and continued with his performance but, not addressing it would have probably made that fan feel like he could freely throwing things onto the stage. I do agree that Akon could have addressed it in a different manner but the fact that he did addressed it the way he did will make others think twice about throwing things at him while he's performing. Akon had the teenager pointed out and brought into the stage. Once the kid got to the stage, Akon pulled him up and hoisted him on his shoulders. Then Akon slung the then 15-year-old into the crowd. The video of this incident has actually been on youtube for awhile now.

If you go on youtube and do a search for this video, it will also bring up a number of other videos showing incidents of music artists pushing people offstage and threatening fans who have thrown things at them. Many of these performers are really from the streets and it takes a lot for them to not spazz out when fans jump onstage or throw things at them.

T.I. has had numerous situations where fans have thrown things onstage while he was performing. Though he hasn't physically hurt any of these people, he has threatened them in a serious way. Telling a large group of people that he'll pay $50,000, to whomever knocks out the next person that throws something onstage is pretty serious. It is also very effective, for the fact that if another person did choose throw something, they would have gotten mobbed by fellow fans.

Any type of physical confrontation between concert performers and fans can be avoided, but both fans and performers have to play their parts. Fans should never throw objects at performers during concerts. Fans should also never try to jump onstage with performers in the middle of a show. What would be even better is if security took more action in situations where performers are violated, instead of the actual performers having to deal with it themselves.