Does it ever bug you when you're watching a performance or listening to something beautiful (e.g. dancing, figure skating, opera) and the audience think it's a brilliant idea to clap along? It really grinds my gears. I'm a figure skater and I have a horrible feeling the fast part of my new 'Zigeunerweisen' programme will have the audience clapping along. I'd say that part is probably as fast as the Can Can, and as lively. I feel like with beautiful music, like Classical, it would be totally unnecessary for anyone to clap along, reason being the conductor and the musicians need to interact and listen to each other attentively. In some cases, it takes away from the beauty that the piece brings. Would you clap along to Scheherazade, Swan Lake, Marriage of Figaro, Toccata and Fugue etc.?
Some argue that the audience is there to have fun. Well, yes, they can have fun. They can listen to the music with their ears and become dissolved into the enchantment that the music brings. However, they're there for the music and a great show - they are not the show, nor are they the music, the act is. It sounds quite killjoy of me to want to stop the audience from having their version of fun, but when it disrespects the nature of the show, their fun needs to end.