Lollapalooza Is Veering Dangerously Close to Becoming a Shitty Top 40 Radio Festival
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The post Lollapalooza Is Veering Dangerously Close to Becoming a Shitty Top 40 Radio Festival appeared first on Consequence.
Lollapalooza has revealed its 2024 lineup, with SZA, Tyler, the Creator, and blink-182 topping the bill. Also set to play the Chicago festival are The Killers, Future x Metro Boomin, Hozier, Stray Kids, and a slew of other artists that you’ve likely heard on the radio, certainly heard on a TikTok or Instagram Reels, and may not really care for — like Tate McRae, Dominic Fike, or Conan Gray. It doesn’t really matter how you feel about those artists, because Lollapalooza was always going to book them anyways.
Since its return in a pandemic-altered 2021, Lollapalooza has been headed towards an identity crisis. TikTok is now king, and demographics, as they inevitably do in music, keep skewing younger. Besides, fewer people are buying tickets to multi-genre festivals, and as Lolla is committed to bringing in the largest crowds possible, it can’t be as edgy as the neighboring Riot Fest or as critically curated as Pitchfork.
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So, Lollapalooza has been gradually whittled down to where it can only exist: the middle of the road. There’s nothing wrong with the middle of the road, necessarily. It’s just unfortunate that a legendary music festival has gradually shed so many layers of identity that it can’t muster a better lineup than one top 40 radio station would put on.
That’s mostly evident in this year’s headliners, which are, well, fine. Look, SZA is amazing, and her 2024 victory lap is well deserved. Her name looks the brightest on the top of the bill, even if she’s there because a mega star they were seeking wasn’t available. But Tyler, the Creator just headlined this festival three years ago, and if he doesn’t have a brand new album out by this summer — and a brand new live show at that — the choice will feel extra disappointing.
Meanwhile, blink-182 is somehow the rarest headlining booking. Besides their surprise Coachella appearance in 2023, the reunited trio actually opted not to do any major US festivals last year, and currently are only scheduled to headline this one in 2024. The Killers are a great live band but it feels like they play this festival every four years. Future x Metro Boomin might end up being the most attended set of the weekend, and Hozier is rapidly approaching “headliner or bust” territory. And there’s Melanie Martinez, which… am I missing something? Has she secretly developed into a genuinely big star? Did the whole Björk rip-off aesthetic from last year’s Portals really move the needle for her? Maybe it did, and it just flew completely over our heads.
Overall, it seems like every festival is falling short on the headliner game, whether that’s due to the availability of acts, the landslide of festival financing, or the costs of country-wide touring. But Lollapalooza isn’t overcompensating much in the undercard either. Nor does it feel like organizers know know which direction to turn, and so they land on middle-of-the-road names for every genre there is. In pop, you have your Tate McRaes (constantly on the radio, great dancer, not a lot of star power) and Reneé Rapps (lots of star power, but her music is just fine); in electronic, your Zed’s Deads (outdated dubstep) and Loud Luxurys (they had one good song); in indie rock/pop/whatever, your Hippo Campuses (at every music festival, perfectly harmless) and BoyWithUkes (He seems like a nice guy but his music is not very good).
Lollapalooza has at times tried to establish a more independent identity, though they’re still behind their contemporaries. For each post-pandemic Lolla, organizers have attempting to create a globally-relevant event. They’ve taken cues from Coachella in embracing K-pop, with J-Hope and TOMORROW x TOGETHER headlining in recent years, they’ve gradually booked more Urbano and Latin Pop, with Karol G becoming the first Latin American headliner in the festival’s history last year.
In 2024, Lolla got Stray Kids and Ive as the K-pop groups du jour, plus J-pop duo Yoasobi. Beyond them (and Brazilian DJs Mochakk and Alok), there’s a major lack of non-Western artists this year. Of course, visas can be tricky — but Peso Pluma, who is subheadlining both Coachella and Governors Ball, felt like a shoe-in, and Feid, who just headlined both Lollapalooza Argentina and Chile, would have been a great inclusion.
The lineup is also light on hometown heroes, especially those with a larger profile (they did book Slow Pulp and Friko, two of our Chi-Town faves). He did play in 2022, but this year would have been the perfect time to invite Joe Keery’s Djo back to the festival, whose song “End of Beginning” is currently very viral and literally shouts out Chicago.
Lollapalooza 2024 does supply more hip-hop than they have in recent year. Perhaps it’s the pairing of Future and Metro Boomin that led to an influx of viral-aided rap stars from the likes of Teezo Touchdown, Veeze, Qveen Herby, Armani White, and Bigxthaplug — not to mention bigger draws like Sexyy Redd, Vince Staples, and Killer Mike. Meanwhile, Lollapalooza remains one of the only festivals to slightly embrace Gen Z’s love of shoegaze, booking up-and-coming artists Wisp and Quannic as well as the unceasingly relevant Deftones. It’s only a few names, but embracing the haze is something Lollapalooza can afford to keep doing.
There are more good bookings that distinguish Lolla from, say, the iHeartRadio Festival — those Top 40 bonanzas wouldn’t book Deftones, Four Tet, Vince Staples, Faye Webster, or Ethel Cain. But Lollapalooza is definitely slouching in that direction. And even with a few of those gems and some genuinely great breakouts like The Japanese House, Lizzy McAlpine, and future star Dora Jar, the lineup this year just feels plain.
As I wrote when breaking down Coachella’s 2024 lineup, every festival has an off year. What’s unfortunate about Lollapalooza, however, is that it does feel like the writing has been on the wall. It’ll be a fun time, sure — lots of great music, that midwestern summer heat, and probably some overly-drunk teens. But if you look closely, the spirit of the old Lolla is dissipating, and what remains isn’t very exciting.
This article has been updated to clarify that blink-182 did headline two US festivals last year — Adjacent and When We Were Young — but none of the country’s “Big Four” festivals besides Coachella.
Lollapalooza Is Veering Dangerously Close to Becoming a Shitty Top 40 Radio Festival
Paolo Ragusa
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