Glastonbury Organizer: ‘There Aren’t A Lot Of New Rock Acts’
Glastonbury 2024 took place over the weekend. The legendary festival has long attracted a diverse bill, but in recent years, there are seemingly fewer and fewer rock acts on it.
This is something Glastonbury organizer Emily Eavis addressed in a new interview with The Telegraph. The interview is behind a paywall, but the headline reads, “Emily Eavis says there are not enough new rock acts for Glastonbury.”
Fortunately, Louder published some of Eavis’s comments about booking rock acts for a festival. Eavis argues that there are seemingly criticisms about every Glastonbury bill. However, Eavis notes that every Glastonbury bill “reflects what’s happening in the music world at the moment.”
She added, “There aren’t a lot of new rock acts to choose from if I’m honest. Hopefully that will emerge again, my heyday was 1995 with Pulp and Oasis and Radiohead… and that was great but music changes all the time and right now this is where we’re at.”
Regardless of how these comments make any rock fan feel reading this right now, they should be taken to heart. Not a single rock album has topped the Billboard 200 album chart, so far, in 2024. In fact, here’s a breakdown of every rock/rock adjacent album that topped that chart from 2019-2023. (And yes, I am being generous when including “rock adjacent” albums.)
2019
Hozier – Wateland, Baby!
Vampire Weekend – Father of the Bride
The Raconteurs – Help Us Stranger
Slipknot – We Are Not Your Kind
Tool – Fear Inoculum
2020
Machine Gun Kelly – Tickets to My Downfall
AC/DC – Power Up
2021
None (Yes, really!)
2022
Machine Gun Kelly – Mainstream Sellout
Red Hot Chili Peppers – Unlimited Love
2023
Blink-182 – One More Time…
Chart-wise, rock is in a sad state. By no means is rock and roll “dead,” to harken back to Gene Simmons’s comments in a 2014 piece from GQ. However, rock has been far from the mainstream for a number of years now. Musicians and fans alike can probably name the pros and cons of that situation.
What it comes down to is this: If you’re fine with rock and roll not being mainstream, then carry on, and thanks for even reading this far. If you’re not fine with rock and roll not being mainstream, perhaps there needs to be an examination as to why this is. Sure, music tastes change with every generation, but why has rock taken such a hit?
This is an examination this author wishes would happen. It’s not an exaggeration when I say that rock and roll saved my life as a teen. I want nothing more than the genre to be robust for generations to come. But in order to have this conversation, many people in power in the music industry need to get comfortable about being uncomfortable real quick.
