Are American Music Festivals Dying?

A closer look at why beloved institutions are struggling to still get people to do drugs in a gated fields while Lana Del Rey and Death Cab For Cutie plays a mile away

For many years in a row, securing tickets to the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival has been a huge hassle. In order to have the pleasure of cramming into a barricade of 100,000 people to see your favorite pop star or EDM act play their hits while flower crowned women took selfies and peed next to you, you'd have to get your tickets up to a year before the lineup was announced. This was because they used to have pretty legendary acts that were hard to see anywhere else. Headliners have included Prince, Daft Punk, Beyonce, Paul McCartney and Lady Gaga, while the undercard sported insane new talent like The Weeknd, The xx and Tame Impala. Legacy acts like Pulp, Mazzy Star, Massive Attack and more would essentially come out of retirement just to grace people with their presence for a huge payout. So what the fuck happened this year?

This year we get a No Doubt reunion no one asked for, lame acts like Khruangbin and Dom Dolla in the second row, Bebe Rehxa, Kevin Abstract, 88RISING FUTURES and then Doja Cat headlining for some reason. It’s not wonder that this festival has seen record low ticket sales, foregoing the year-in-advance strategy of the past for desperate and constant Instagram ads to come to this horrible festival. Just as a reminder, here is a previous lineup.

Here, we have two formidable headliners (fuck The Black Keys), along with so many insane undercard acts. Bon Iver, At The Drive-In, AVICII, Arctic Monkeys, Madness (“Our house, in the middle of our street, our house”), M83, SebastiAn, Death Grips, Atari Teenage Riot, Flying Lotus, Childish Gambino, Thundercat, St. Vincent, Frank Ocean, Cat Power, Azealia Banks, A$AP Rocky — many artists in the legacy or prime eras that could be headliners today. Maybe I sound like an old man, but I know for a fact that Gen Z kids who’s parents are all like 40 put them onto shit like this. They are nostalgic for these lineups just like I am, because unlike the curators of the festivals, the consumers actually have good taste. The blatant appeal to the artists of the TikTok era, who’s fans might show up to like and comment but won’t make the trek out to the middle of desert, is not working anymore and is leading to the degradation of what once was a beautiful dream.

There is no worse offender of this than Governor’s Ball, a festival that I used to hold near and dear to my heart. This lineup is vomit inducing.

I can just imagine the people at Founders Entertainment crossing their arms like “yeah, we really did it this year”. For reference, most of these acts have already headlined and are past their prime. On top of that, we have seemingly fake artists like “Goth Babe”, “Qveen Herby” and “D4VD”, bro, who the fuck are these people and who is bumping their music? This is an ego driven lineup with a bunch of full name pop stars. No longer do we have Beach House, Phoenix, or The 1975 on at 4PM. Future subbing in for Rae Sremmurd to play to a crowd of 10 people at 1PM. No, no we have Farruko right before Post Malone. How exciting!

Again, just for reference here was a lineup when I was younger.

Like, where do I even begin? Indie sleaze staples like Alt-J and Deerhunter towards the bottom of the lineup, these are bands that shaped the culture who you'd basically miss if you and your friends pregamed too hard. Kanye West headlining with his Yeezus album cycle, maybe his very best tour. A young Kendrick Lamar in his good kid, M.A.A.D. city era, Bloc Party, prime Crystal Castles, Dirty Projectors, like all great live acts. People that brought a vibe. Some of these acts are definitely outdated, but at the time they were absolutely everywhere and everyone loved it. Now you get Renee Rapp or nothing at all.

When looking into this phenomenon of mid lineups, I came across a really good Reddit opinion (which is rare). The user said something to the effect of “we are getting to a point where the millennial artists are not exciting enough to headline, but no one from the younger generation is bold enough to take their place”. And that’s true. People like Tyler, The Creator, The Weeknd, Frank Ocean and Lana Del Rey started in 2010 and defined the vibe of an entire era. Now in 2024, I’m struggling to see people moving onto new aesthetics. And with key publications like Pitchfork shuttering and losing relevance to random algorithms and TikTok sounds, I fail to see any real, critically praised, and enduring acts rising up to really excite the masses in a major way.

While I think last year’s Coachella lineup was really exciting a well done, it was a flame burning bright for one last time, giving everything it had before going dark. The ticket prices keep getting higher and higher, the conditions at these festivals were never fun to begin with, and everyone has just been way too uptight post-COVID. The prospect of doing drugs in a field while you favorite artist performs a mile away is just not as cute as it once was. It’s the end of an era, for sure. And honestly, I’m fine with it.