Encore (concert) - Popular Music

Popular Music

In most circumstances, it has become standard for rock and pop artists to give an encore; especially in large settings such as stadiums and arenas. Artists often plan their encores in advance, and they are commonly included on the artist's setlist; one common practice is to leave one or more of their most popular songs for an encore.

Some artists include their encore as the second half of the concert. For example the Jamaican reggae musician Bob Marley and his band The Wailers were known to play the concerts of their last two tours in 1979 and 1980 in two halves: after the first half was performed they stopped performing for some minutes to tune their instruments again or to have a break, while the audience was demanding for more. They continued to play the concert with the "encore" which lasted about an hour. Sometimes they even played one or two additional songs (a "real" encore in the traditional sense, rather than an inevitable performance staged as an encore) after the planned encore. Similarly, former Guided by Voices frontman Robert Pollard generally plays songs from his solo career for the first half of his shows, and then, for the inevitable encore, will play a lengthy selection of Guided by Voices songs, with the two halves generally having roughly equal duration.

In the early days of modern rock music, Elvis Presley never played encores, a practice his manager Col. Tom Parker felt was the best manner by which to leave audiences wanting. The now-famous phrase "Elvis has left the building" was used at the beginning of his career when Presley was not the headliner, followed by a plea for the audience to return to their seats so as to watch those artists following Presley. Once he became a headliner, it was invariably followed by a polite "thank you, and good night", to imply to those present at the concert that there was not going to be an encore.

Jimmy Buffett is known for his intimate second encores at his infamous shows. He and his band leave the stage after performing their set and return for a typical encore of usually two songs and band introductions. Then they leave the stage again and Buffett comes back out on stage by himself for a second encore and performs an acoustic ballad to end the show. This final song is usually what his hardcore fans look forward to the most because it's a different song every show and usually an obscure selection; many fans consider Buffett’s ballads to be his best songs despite not being among his famous songs. A collection of Buffett’s second encores, entitled encores, was released in 2010.

Boston played a show with four encores back in 1985 and The Cure has played up to five encores on a handful of occasions.