Potential Headliners in 5 Years

awful

My take was and still is that artists who don't have the back catalogue shouldn't headline majors. The US festival market is leaning more and more towards a hype market where artists and bands could be replaced by any other band if they get a few years of buzz on the internet (Eilish, GvF) or if they score one good record (see SZA, Solange, Gambino). The aspect of getting your placement by your legacy and the amount of succesful albums you made is therefor fading away. Is it a bad thing that the industry could make up a new headliner in the span of 1 or 2 years, I don't know. It gives more variety in line ups on top and gives festivals more choice but it'll create more pressure on the artist and those who can't cope with that pressure will just fade away.

Perfect example this year is Sheck Wes coming through with some crazy billings because of just one song and there have been other rappers in the past who faded away just as quick as they blew up.

I just think it’s kinda funny that you guys fully dismiss Billie Eilish’s work because she’s a “plant”, but then willingly travel to a field to see Post Malone live in concert (while even expecting good things). Dude is hot garbage. I like for my plants to at least put all of that money and support behind interesting music. I guess I can’t get why she is so blatantly bad (even if we haven’t all heard the album yet), but digest and fluff arguably cringier/less talented acts. Different strokes I guess.

I do think it’s perfectly fine to compare her to Lorde. “Why do we even have to compare The Beatles and Stones”, is something I can’t say I’ve heard argued before. Who cares? If Melodrama would have been better we would have been talking about Lorde’s bump. Instead she’ll come back to roughly the same position. Either way if they weren’t similar stylistically and in age then we probably wouldn’t be talking about them. There’s enough similarities to warrant a discussion though.

As far as Gambino headlining, we are out of legacy headliners and you can’t just keep cycling tired rock bands like Arcade Fire and Muse. They have to cultivate new acts on the rise. Some of those will work and some won’t, but with the homogenized market and dwindling pool of talent it’s absolutely necessary. I don’t care for Gambino at all but he makes perfect sense as a Coachella top 3 even if he has one well known track to date. I’m not that familiar with his work, but to be fair he seemed to have been building his career up long before, “This Is America”. I don’t think the festival is at fault by using buzzy acts to their advantage. They can’t just force legacy/proven acts to go to work during an off year. Like the euro market will bump bands who could never headline over here, they have to work with what’s available.

Should probably be noted too that industry plants have been an industry standard long before the internet started pointing them out. Is Cardi B a plant? I would say she is for sure but I’m just curious as to why she got a pass around here on the way to the top.

Also I can’t say enough that while Janelle Monae is alright, her album (outside of a handful of tracks) was pretty boring and overrated here. I don’t think that’s super crazy to say.

Post Malone is tied with the Wood Brothers for like 42nd most anticipated Bonnaroo act on this board. Literally no one here is going to Bonnaroo specifically to see him, and a lot of people straight-up aren't going to go to his possibly-unopposed set. Those who are mostly have an attitude of giving it a shot and hoping it doesn't suck. This is absolutely not a thing.

Its only like 40 seconds, but he does already have his own entire song on a Beyoncé record

Yes this exactly.

I’m just saying if one is so open to mainstream music that they would be into Post Malone then they might be down to give the new Billie Eilish a shot. No offense. I don’t think it’s such an, “awful, awful take, my guy”, for someone to think that her debut might have been better than Lorde’s sophomore album. I will play a draft with you guys sometime so that ya might be more kind when I put an opinion online.

You’re free to think that, I was just throwing some banter your way.

I might not be familiar enough with Awolnation, but this seems different?

He plays 6 songs from it on his current tour

Yeah I'd expect that to be well-represented.

Billie and Maggie definitely make sense, but why Parcels? I may have just missed it, but I haven't really seen much hype around them

Maggie Rogers 100%. Most enthusiastic crowd at the festival and she killed it.