Music
The Rise of Listening Parties
From Blood Orange to Tyler, the Creator, artists want you to unplug and come together.
On a steamy summer evening in New York City, hundreds of denizens descended upon the Sugar Hill Supper Club, a celebrated neighborhood establishment in Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn. The attraction? An invitation to listen to Blood Orange’s forthcoming album, Essex Honey, ahead of its official release date on August 29.
Sugar Hill, which opened in 1978 as a discotheque, has an historical allure from the inside: carpeted floors, mirrored walls, red lights, fog, and giant speakers on the slightly elevated stage. Upstairs, another speaker system sits on a table in a windowed corner—both sound setups happen to be Ojas NNNN ON7 club systems—signaling the audiophile experience that awaits.
The NYC crowd vibes to Blood Orange's new album, Essex Honey.
© Erica Harris DeValve
In the age of the AI-curated playlists and aux cord DJs, there’s a growing sentiment that we’ve lost a connection with music—how to discover it, how it’s made—but there’s a wave of artists taking matters into their own hands. In late July, Tyler the Creator’s surprise album drop was quickly followed by pop-up outdoor listening events in LA and NYC with a strict stipulation: “DON’T COME IF YOU AREN’T GOING TO DANCE.” And while the NYC-based British artist, Blood Orange (real name Devonté Hynes), is inviting fans to a more intimate setting, the mission remains the same: listen to the album in full amongst a community, phones down.
It’s nice to be quiet with the music and with other people. There aren’t very many opportunities to do that.
While the Instagram announcement made no guarantee that the artist would be present, Johnny, 30, made the trek from Delaware anyway, “I took a nice little three-hour drive to be here,” he says, while catching the breeze from a cracked window. “To be able to hear the project early and experience it with everyone at the same time; it’s pretty cool.”
At 8:30 pm, Blood Orange jumps behind the speakers and grabs the mic. “This is the first time I’m going to play the record anywhere to anyone,” he says, “I hope you like it.” The artist encourages the crowd to sit down and relax and quickly dips off stage. As the music flows from the sound system—filling the room with bass and the artist's signature hazy vocals—bodies begin to sway, heads nod to the beat, eyes close.
People line up outside of the Sugar Hill Supper Club in Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn.
© Erica Harris DeValve
Blood Orange announced the NYC listening party only one day in advance.
© Erica Harris DeValve
The crowd at Blood Orange's listening party were dressed to impress.
© Erica Harris DeValve
The sultry red lights of Sugar Hill Supper Club added allure to the night.
© Provided by Melissa Saenz Gordon
Listening parties like this act as both an experimental way for an artist to inject their art into the zeitgeist, but also as an intervention to how we experience and connect with music. “Even though there was nothing to look at,” says Tiff, 28, “I liked looking around and seeing how other people felt in the space.” She was with a group of friends from college. “We didn’t go in with a party mindset. It’s kind of nice to be quiet with the music and with other people. There aren’t very many opportunities to do that.”
The spontaneity of the event also adds an urgency to show up. Blood Orange announced the eighteen-city roster of listening parties on Instagram only a few days before the NYC event and details for that night were only shared a day prior, but that’s all it took to draw a crowd.
When the album ends, Blood Orange jumps back on the mic to express gratitude for joining and letting us know the album would repeat if anyone wanted to hear it again. This time, the doors of the venue swung open, the unreleased music spilling onto the streets of Brooklyn.
Blood Orange's new album, Essex Honey, drops on August 29.
© Sony Music
Blood Orange's new album, Essex Honey, will be available on August 29.
Instagram @devhynes
