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Smart: Frank Ocean: The fact that they stayed consistent with Frank, keeping him on 3 years after his original booking. And the fact that he kept his word to play this year. As far as headliners go, he's one of the hardest to catch live.
Jai Paul: Coachella has become a place where you should expect the unexpected somewhere on the line up, and they hit it out of the park with the rarest act they could possibly get.
Metro Boomin: Any other year, I'd consider Metro a good booking but not a top 5 smart booking. But with the lack of hiphop this year (in terms of quality and volume) on the second line, they did good on at least one of them. And that artist is Metro. Probably the biggest hiphop producer of the past decade.
Gorillaz: As a sub on Bad Bunny's day specifically. We all know that unfortunately not everyone is on board with a headliner that isn't speaking English. So having a headliner caliber act like Gorillaz, to satisfy those type of people was a genius idea.
Calvin Harris: Making excellent use of the bottom slot of the poster. Especially in a situation where they couldn't book their targeted headliner for Saturday.
Bad:
A Boogie: Self explanatory. Should be a 3rd liner, and even then I would question why go after him on a year with a light batch if hiphop to choose from.
EDM overload: Nothing against the genre, but electronic music makes up almost 40% of this line up, which is a little over kill to me.
Pusha T: Was there a reason to bring him back? He hasn't grown in fan base since 2019. I respect him as a legend but his set had a light crowd in 2019 and I doubt it'll be any different this year. Again, wasted hiphop slots.
Chromeo: Feels like filler. Again, I respect them, but was there a reason to bring them back again from 2019?
Lack of R&B: It's pretty ridiculous how little there is.
Missed:
Sault A$AP Rocky Paramore (pop punk era in general) More J-Pop Rihanna
Pusha T: Was there a reason to bring him back? He hasn't grown in fan base since 2019. I respect him as a legend but his set had a light crowd in 2019 and I doubt it'll be any different this year. Again, wasted hiphop slots.
Horrible take. If he’s “bad” who would have been better?
Pusha T: Was there a reason to bring him back? He hasn't grown in fan base since 2019. I respect him as a legend but his set had a light crowd in 2019 and I doubt it'll be any different this year. Again, wasted hiphop slots.
Horrible take. If he’s “bad” who would have been better?
also its almost dry was awesome, he’s very good live too.
Gorillaz: As a sub on Bad Bunny's day specifically. We all know that unfortunately not everyone is on board with a headliner that isn't speaking English. So having a headliner caliber act like Gorillaz, to satisfy those type of people was a genius idea.
Plot twist: Gorillaz' setlist will consist of "Desole", "Latin Simone", the Bad Bunny collab, and Kali Uchis will show up 2 days early for the Spanish version of "She's My Collar".
Honestly, this year is hard to make a Missed list because of how many acts Paul is probably holding for TANP and the ongoing pissing contest LN now has with Primavera LA. I could make a better list once those line ups are out.
Pusha T released one of the most positively reviewed rap records of last year, of course they were going to call him.
Hard to call SAULT a miss when they’ve never done a live show although I am sure Coachella called anyway.
Pinkpantheress and Tems are two that seem like odd misses for me given that they seem completely available. YEAT seems like an odd miss given he is not part of the Rolling Loud lineup and I am not aware of any optics reason why he’s be an easy pass.
Pusha T released one of the most positively reviewed rap records of last year, of course they were going to call him.
Hard to call SAULT a miss when they’ve never done a live show although I am sure Coachella called anyway.
Pinkpantheress and Tems are two that seem like odd misses for me given that they seem completely available. YEAT seems like an odd miss given he is not part of the Rolling Loud lineup and I am not aware of any optics reason why he’s be an easy pass.
Tems technically hasn’t released an album yet so perhaps her team is holding off until next year so it can drop and get her higher billing. Maybe she was offered a spot on the third line and would rather bet on the album pushing her to the second line. PinkPantheress technically doesn't have an album yet either, just a mixtape so she might be waiting too. We've seen this happen with Portugal. The Man and I'm sure it's more common than we think.
it was smart of Coachella to book bands I like. it was dumb of them to make this lineup 95% shitty techno and deep house. they really missed out on booking more bands I like.
Pusha T released one of the most positively reviewed rap records of last year, of course they were going to call him.
Hard to call SAULT a miss when they’ve never done a live show although I am sure Coachella called anyway.
Pinkpantheress and Tems are two that seem like odd misses for me given that they seem completely available. YEAT seems like an odd miss given he is not part of the Rolling Loud lineup and I am not aware of any optics reason why he’s be an easy pass.
Tems technically hasn’t released an album yet so perhaps her team is holding off until next year so it can drop and get her higher billing. Maybe she was offered a spot on the third line and would rather bet on the album pushing her to the second line. PinkPantheress technically doesn't have an album yet either, just a mixtape so she might be waiting too. We've seen this happen with Portugal. The Man and I'm sure it's more common than we think.
And IIRC Yeat doesn’t like doing festivals.
Yeah just Tems popped up on other festivals this year, so did Pinkpantheress and she also did Portola, I honestly took them for granted that they'd be there. You may be right though - Coach is just a different beast and I can definitely see teams saying "for this one, we want it to launch the next era" in a way they wouldn't for others.
Pusha T: Was there a reason to bring him back? He hasn't grown in fan base since 2019. I respect him as a legend but his set had a light crowd in 2019 and I doubt it'll be any different this year. Again, wasted hiphop slots.
Horrible take. If he’s “bad” who would have been better?
So many other rappers who are more relevant.
Pusha T's set in 2019 was pretty dang boring. And I like Pusha T. He didn't pull much of a crowd, and the people who did show up didn't get into it until he did his Kanye features and Move That Dope feature.
Crowd might also have to do with hiphop on the mainstage during the height of heat. Because RTJ's crowd was similar last year in pretty much the same time slot on the same day (Sunday).
Again, I respect the heck out of Pusha T but there were better options for sure.
I totally understand BENEE not being someone's cup of tea, but I definitely wouldn't call her filler. Like at all, since she's pretty young and relevant. It made total sense for her to be on the line up, I'm surprised she wasn't on it last year since her EP came out around Coachella 22. She'll probably have a new LP out before the fest this year.
Post by thepiratepenguin on Jan 24, 2023 0:52:48 GMT -5
There needs to be more hatred of Dominic Fike. I think the term "industry plant" is used too frequently in situations where it clearly doesn't apply, but then there's this guy, who the industry is very much trying to make a thing, negotiating primo festival poster billing despite most attendees probably only recognizing his face from Euphoria (where he's not even that major of a character) and not actually recognizing his name. Unsurprisingly, his music absolutely sucks.
Dominic Fike is the most 2022 Coachella artist on the entire lineup. He's the American dream. One minute you're portraying an acoustic guitar playing druggie on a hit TV show, the next you're playing your shitty songs on your acoustic guitar at the biggest festival in the continent.
I totally understand BENEE not being someone's cup of tea, but I definitely wouldn't call her filler. Like at all, since she's pretty young and relevant. It made total sense for her to be on the line up, I'm surprised she wasn't on it last year since her EP came out around Coachella 22. She'll probably have a new LP out before the fest this year.
It's like calling Clairo in 2019 fest filler lol
I've gotta agree here. I wasn't aware of her until the lineup came out, but it sounds like some super pleasant indie pop to me. Catch me at her shady early afternoon Gobi set swaying back and forth sipping on my vodka lemonade.
Post by raftwithtaft on Jan 24, 2023 17:53:05 GMT -5
Smart:
Gorillaz/Bjork - Both acts I've been hoping to see for the first time at Coachella and they delivered both on one lineup.
Blondie - Just a great booking that reminds me of incredibly fun Steely Dan/David Byrne sets in the past.
Dinner Party - Quintessential Coachella kind of booking to me. Feels like the kind of set that will be criminally underattended but get rave reviews.
Alex G/Comet Is Coming - 2020 bookings I thought they whiffed on in 2022 that ended up being better decisions for 2023.
boygenius - New singles are great. Hopefully they get 60-75 minutes and do a mix of solo and group stuff.
Dumb:
Kaytranada - Love his studio work, but one of those acts I feel is there almost every other year lately and isn't the best live.
Blackpink - Doesn't really make sense to me as a headliner without backing them with more J/K-pop groups. Especially with multiple LA dates two months ago.
Jackson Wang - The one big Asian pop group they do book was just there last year as a guest and is an active CCP apologist during his shows? No thank you...
Second Line Filler - Some incredibly strong acts dragged down by slots that could be filled by better rap/R&B or acts cannibalized for other LA fests (YYY's/MGMT/etc).
EDM - Lineup balance swung way too heavily towards EDM. Some great top end bookings with lots of whiffs on more interesting undercard acts (Max Cooper/Daniel Avery/Haai) for some uninspired ones.
Missed:
Alvvays - Coming off one of the best albums of 2022, seems silly not to book them with the lack of indie rock in the top 3 lines.
Ibibio Sound Machine - Another great 2022 album and the band is a perfect fit for the direction of the lineup this year.
Kendrick - Lineup would have looked massive with him at the top and Blackpink subbing. Have avoided all videos of his new show in the hopes he was here.
Springsteen - Big miss every year until they book him. His floor tickets go for $1000+ and justify the price of the fest alone.
The Smile - Whiffed on this after losing out on Thom Yorke to Covid in 2020.
I was being flippant earlier but I at least feel this is an interesting enough thought exercise so I'm going to take it seriously for a moment:
1. Labrinth - I was talking about Coachella with some people over the weekend and this was one of the acts people pretty consistently across the board agreed they'd like to see. I don't watch it myself so I forget it too, but Euphoria is really, really popular!
2. Rosalía - going to call myself out here because I always think she's more niche than she actually is. I think more of the people I was talking to were excited about Rosalía than Bad Bunny lol.
3. Calvin Harris - if they're going to continue this goofy "returning to the desert shit", it is way more impressive they got Calvin Harris to do it than SHM.
4. Kali Uchis/Becky G - one of the first posts in this thread that instigated some banter back and forth later on was about Anitta/Karol G being too similar to one another (again, in spite of the fact that they are nothing alike.) however, in my humble opinion, it is good that Coachella continues to book women who are popular in the Latin music world. (they should do more of this with, also, say, the deep house/techno that's so prevalent and that I've ripped on before and more in a little bit but baby steps.)
5. Jai Paul - well, he's good, obviously. But a couple months ago after Paramore was leaked for Bonnaroo I was thinking about how when Pearl Jam headlined Bonnaroo in 2008, they were performing 17 years after Ten. In 2023, Paramore is performing 18 years after All We Know is Falling. We're entering the era of millennial legacy acts, and I think that's going to take a lot of forms. Pop punk/nu metal nostalgia is maybe the most discussed right now (and to a lesser extent with Lovers & Friends-type rap/R&B and 90s country), but besides all of that: there's not a lot of super-rare/reunion type acts for people in my age bracket, and we're also starting to see the Just Like Heaven/"indie sleaze" (blech) nostalgia emerge. Jai Paul fits into that perfectly. He's not going to move 10k tickets or anything, but Coachella's reputation is still at least partially staked on this sort of thing and it's a good signal it's going to continue for whatever elusive artists past, present, and future generations like down the line.
Dumb:
1. The sheer volume of deep house/techno on the lineup. I was kidding earlier and others said it too, but it is really astonishing how much of it there is. There's a lot of commentary about how acts like Underworld or Jai Paul or whatever might be off putting to the Median Music Fan because we're all pretentious assholes or whatever, but John Q. Public isn't dying to go to Coachella to go see Maceo Plex or Tale of Us or The Blaze, either. But in the end, it's not dumb that Coachella books a lot of dance music (after all, the Sahara and Yuma aren't going anywhere anytime soon) or that they're not necessarily super popular artists or whatever. The problem is a lot of that shit sucks and they should let me book the Yuma. (imo.)
2. $uicideboy$ / A Boogie: I don't really have anything against either of them but it's extraordinarily funny that there's exactly two rappers on the second line and...it's these two acts. Rolling Loud took a lot of acts off the table but they didn't take everybody!
3. 1999.ODDS - there's a lot of comparisons to Dreamcar, but the Dreamcar was announced in November 2016. it is pretty weird that there is zero information about this two weeks after the lineup announcement!
4. This is much more difficult than I thought it'd be. Mostly because a lot of acts I don't necessarily like are either partially a matter of personal taste or at least make sense in some context (it is weird that Coachella and Bonnaroo booked Rebelution in 2023, it is infinitely less weird Coachella booked them and Stick Figure). so uh? It's weird that Chris Lake is #5 on his day or whatever?
5. Marc Rebillet. because I hate him.
Missed (I'm going to speak mostly in generalities here more than specific acts. yes it was dumb that they missed Confidence Man, again, for the fourth year in a row. I can only come to expect it at this point):
1. When the lineup first came out, I had talked with some friends of mine of Indian descent who thought it was cool that Diljit Dosanjh was playing since they know a lot of his music from his movies. But they also thought it was a bit weird that they didn't book a more homegrown Desi act like AP Dhillon. of course, there's several acts of south Asian descent from across the globe playing Coachella this year (including Ali Sethi [who's very good, it should be mentioned while I'm over here!] and a certain Jai Paul). But that conversation got me thinking about how, although we praise Coachella a lot for booking a wide variety of international acts, because other genres eat into the lineup so much more, there's very few instances of multiple acts in a certain international style/genre. I don't think this is a hard and fast point, but it's worth thinking about. Consider another example:
2. As a fan of K-pop, it's kind of weird Jackson Wang is the only other K-pop act on the lineup besides Blackpink. I get a lot of the reason he was booked is probably because of his 88rising association, but he's not really a big-name K-pop artist, either here in the US or in South Korea; as with 2NE1 and aespa last year there's plenty of great K-pop groups whose management are surely dying to have them play Coachella and I wish Coachella had reached out to them. Jackson Wang is pretty good, but I don't think he necessarily complements Blackpink super well and I feel like I'm being picky here but if Goldenvoice was only planning on booking exactly two K-pop acts and of them was Blackpink it would've made more sense to pick a group.
3. I've spilled a lot of ink about the last two subjects, so for a more pithy comment: why is there no 2nd-3rd line regional Mexican act lol?
4. absolutely criminal that the Deawele brothers were extensively performing around Coachella this year and their prime successors weren't booked in spite of the fact they're touring the US around Coachella. the people demand to know: where the fuck are Charlotte Adigéry & Bolis Pupul??
5. I looked at a lot of installation art when I was doing my mocks this year and Yinka Ilori's shit is so good. They really should've had him do something this year.
2. As a fan of K-pop, it's kind of weird Jackson Wang is the only other K-pop act on the lineup besides Blackpink. I get a lot of the reason he was booked is probably because of his 88rising association, but he's not really a big-name K-pop artist, either here in the US or in South Korea; as with 2NE1 and aespa last year there's plenty of great K-pop groups whose management are surely dying to have them play Coachella and I wish Coachella had reached out to them. Jackson Wang is pretty good, but I don't think he necessarily complements Blackpink super well and I feel like I'm being picky here but if Goldenvoice was only planning on booking exactly two K-pop acts and of them was Blackpink it would've made more sense to pick a group.
DPR LIVE + DPR IAN are within the K-pop realm too.
2. As a fan of K-pop, it's kind of weird Jackson Wang is the only other K-pop act on the lineup besides Blackpink. I get a lot of the reason he was booked is probably because of his 88rising association, but he's not really a big-name K-pop artist, either here in the US or in South Korea; as with 2NE1 and aespa last year there's plenty of great K-pop groups whose management are surely dying to have them play Coachella and I wish Coachella had reached out to them. Jackson Wang is pretty good, but I don't think he necessarily complements Blackpink super well and I feel like I'm being picky here but if Goldenvoice was only planning on booking exactly two K-pop acts and of them was Blackpink it would've made more sense to pick a group.
DPR LIVE + DPR IAN are within the K-pop realm too.
Ehhhhhhh I disagree, there’s plenty of Korean rappers who are tangentially associated with pop stars but I wouldn’t consider them Kpop (or Epik High, who have a better claim since they were (are?) associated with YG)
DPR LIVE + DPR IAN are within the K-pop realm too.
Ehhhhhhh I disagree, there’s plenty of Korean rappers who are tangentially associated with pop stars but I wouldn’t consider them Kpop (or Epik High, who have a better claim since they were (are?) associated with YG)
Both DPR and Epik High are definitely K-pop adjacent. Not technically "K-pop" but still K-hip-hop, K-R&B and such. Most, if not all K-pop fans group them within the same industry. Your original claim were about artists that compliment BLACKPINK and DPR (along with Jackson Wang) certainly do that, considering the overlap of fans.
Sure, they could've gone with some bigger names or another strictly K-pop group but at least the combo of BLACKPINK, Jackson Wang and DPR gives some variety while still remaining in the same scene.
Ehhhhhhh I disagree, there’s plenty of Korean rappers who are tangentially associated with pop stars but I wouldn’t consider them Kpop (or Epik High, who have a better claim since they were (are?) associated with YG)
Both DPR and Epik High are definitely K-pop adjacent. Not technically "K-pop" but still K-hip-hop, K-R&B and such. Most, if not all K-pop fans group them within the same industry. Your original claim were about artists that compliment BLACKPINK and DPR (along with Jackson Wang) certainly do that, considering the overlap of fans.
Sure, they could've gone with some bigger names or another strictly K-pop group but at least the combo of BLACKPINK, Jackson Wang and DPR gives some variety while still remaining in the same scene.
I see where you’re coming from here but I still don’t agree; this isn’t a neat 1:1 comparison but if Coachella booked Justin Bieber and Ludacris I wouldn’t consider them to be similar artists just because Luda did a verse on “Baby” and had worked with pop artists before.
Both DPR and Epik High are definitely K-pop adjacent. Not technically "K-pop" but still K-hip-hop, K-R&B and such. Most, if not all K-pop fans group them within the same industry. Your original claim were about artists that compliment BLACKPINK and DPR (along with Jackson Wang) certainly do that, considering the overlap of fans.
Sure, they could've gone with some bigger names or another strictly K-pop group but at least the combo of BLACKPINK, Jackson Wang and DPR gives some variety while still remaining in the same scene.
I see where you’re coming from here but I still don’t agree; this isn’t a neat 1:1 comparison but if Coachella booked Justin Bieber and Ludacris I wouldn’t consider them to be similar artists just because Luda did a verse on “Baby” and had worked with pop artists before.
Bieber and Ludacris aren't really an apt comparison to this and are more different than BLACKPINK and DPR. The Korean culture behind this plays a huge part of sharing appeal between these artists. Maybe you're not recognizing the Korean origin of these artists and strictly just labeling them as pop and hip-hop which I sorta understand but at the same time, that Korean origin is an important part of that music's identity. As a whole, BLACKPINK, Jackson Wang and DPR LIVE + DPR IAN are part of the Asian representation despite their varying styles, much like how Becky G, BRATTY and Conexión Divina represent Latin, yet they'll all appeal to crowds looking for that representation.
Also, I've been posting Artist of the Day posts on the Coachella subreddit and by coincidence, DPR LIVE + DPR IAN is tomorrow's artist I'll post. I aggregate the "similar artists" from several sites to get the best comparisons to suggest for the "FOR FANS OF" part and a LOT of K-pop artists popped up for them. Stray Kids, ATEEZ, NCT 127, TXT, SEVENTEEN, NewJeans, even one site had BLACKPINK.
Pusha T released one of the most positively reviewed rap records of last year, of course they were going to call him.
Hard to call SAULT a miss when they’ve never done a live show although I am sure Coachella called anyway.
Pinkpantheress and Tems are two that seem like odd misses for me given that they seem completely available. YEAT seems like an odd miss given he is not part of the Rolling Loud lineup and I am not aware of any optics reason why he’s be an easy pass.
Yeat is touring
He also sucks live so it might be good for him to keep practicing until putting him in front of people that aren’t his 19 year old fans
Post by DammitDereck on Jan 25, 2023 14:06:01 GMT -5
Smart:
1. The Subheadliners: It's such a crazy switch up to look at the poster and process how big all of the subs are. All headliners in their own right at just about any other music festival. It's maybe silly to expect this going forward, but its going to be difficult to not have high expectations for these slots in 2024 and onward.
2. Jai Paul: Maybe a good chunk of attendees won't see it this way, but these kind of wtf bookings keep Coachella as pretty much the only music festival (especially in the US) capable of making the impossible happen.
3. Boygenius: Phoebe Bridgers is blowing the fuck up right now and getting her back this soon in a rare supergroup "reunion" is insane.
4. The Sonora: I'm making some assumptions on who's going to be in there, but I think the Sonora is poppin' this year. Acts like Soul Glo, DannyLux, and Bratty have me really excited to pop into the Sonora this year, and I don't typically spend a bunch of time in there.
Eric Prydz: I imagine they've been trying to book Prydz and maybe even HOLO for a minute now, but its great to see it finally pan out. This show seems exceedingly difficult to catch especially on the west coast. I'm not like huge on Prydz myself, but the sheer spectacle of this show will be worth checking out.
???:
1. 2nd Line Hip-Hop: I know this has been discussed ad nauseam, but my take here is that they might need to be a bit more lenient with Rolling Loud LA and their radius clause if that's the issue. A Boogie and $uicideboy$ as the highest billed hip-hop acts is strange, and it doesn't strike me as Coachella betting that these artists are going to blow up in the next few months..
2. Porter Robinson: To preface, I'm a fan of Porter, enjoyed his most recent version of Nurture Live with the full band, and think Nurture is his best work to date. ALL THAT BEING SAID. I don't think Nurture is the ecstasy fever dream that Worlds was live and as such, it doesn't go over nearly as well with rave audiences and most porter fans have had the opportunity to catch Nurture. I feel like a Virtual Self booking would have made more sense here.
3. House/Tech House fodder: the Yuma has not changed much in like 3-4 years at least and it feels like they just book the same acts all the insomniac one day house fests do throughout the year. There's an abundance of talent in this space, I feel like they could try and be a little more creative
4. Sofi Tukker: I know they're only on the 3rd line, but they still feel overbilled and also just an act that is exceedingly easy to see. They've played virtually every major music festival over the last 5 years and I don't think its interesting at all.
5. Gordo: I mean just why?
Misses:
1. K-Pop on Saturday: I think they missed an opportunity to sprinkle in some hot names in K-POP to make the cost of attending more feasible for big K-POP fans. Something like TWICE, LOONA, or NEWJEANS would've made a lot of sense
2. Olivia Rodrigo: I don't know if her or her management would've accepted 3rd on their day billing, but maybe hot take: this might've been the last opportunity to book her before she's pushing for a headliner booking.
3. FKA Twigs: Maybe they're saving her for a sub spot in 2024 on the back of another record, but they also should've just rebooked her by now. She's an immense talent and a strong performer as well.
4. Paramore: The Emo nostalgia is still going strong and selling well, and Paramore have (in my opinion) shown that they can provide some of that nostalgia, but they also continued to evolve as a band and kept producing hits. Seems like an easy win especially with a new album on the way from them
5.Video Game Music: Definitely a personal choice here and I'm not really sure how well it'd go over, but I think Video Games have been getting more mainstream attention with successful TV adaptations like Castlevania, The Last of Us, and Arcane. Coachella is probably the only music festival that would take a shot on booking something like the legend of zelda orchestra or something. Not a super serious thing here, but I think it would be pretty cool.
Post by raftwithtaft on Jan 26, 2023 16:39:17 GMT -5
Would also just like to emphasize how big of a miss Max Cooper is every year they don't book him for Coachella. This lineup already seems to have a lot of electronic acts with huge spectacle, but I hope they eventually find room for him. A nighttime slot in the Sahara or Mojave with projected visuals on the roof of the tent would be one of the most impressive A/V shows in the fest's history. Give the man the keys to the Antarctic tent while you're at it!
