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Its an interesting point when you are talking about real headliners, like top 3 headliners. We discussed this quite a bit in the Speculation and Wishlist thread in 2012. I mean, where are all the headliners? The pool of legendary musicians and long awaited reunions of legendary bands continues to shrink. The rampant growth of the American festival industry, coupled with the shrinking/reorganization of the music business has made it near impossible for a band to achieve headliner status. At some point, these older rock legends are going to start retiring, and then who is going to play the big stage to close out the night?
Lots of smaller acts receive passionate followings, but how often will say a Mumford and Sons, or Arcade Fire happen? And how long will they stick around at their current level of popularity? And even those two acts don't approach the level of prestige or majority acceptance like a Paul McCartney or Prince does.
It seems like the only genre that is currently developing headliner level of popularity acts is EDM. Maybe I'm just being shortsighted, and eventually rock will come back around, and a White Stripes will come out of seemingly nowhere that strikes the level of resonance with enough people to make them viable headliners.
I agree, but I'm not sure that the lack of exploding rock acts over the past decade is thanks to rock becoming less trendy, as much as us having the ability to hear any music at our fingertips.
I know a lot of people simply proclaim "THE POWAR OF TEH INTERNETZ" when a major change that has taken place within the past 20 years is recognized, but hear me out.
People who are "Rock Fans" are now able to easily explore its infinite subgenres. Not only that, but we might find specific things we like about subgenres, and fall in love with even more specific types of music. Our collective taste is splintering rapidly, meaning that there may not be a large enough audience a band as poplar as, say Talking Heads.
The reason that brostep has been immune to this is its youth. Record companies were able to snatch up the Skrillexes and Deadmau5s and promote them to develop interest in the genre; but even this early, those hooked in by brostep are discovering other forms of EDM with similar wub and becoming more dedicated fans of those artists.
That said, I think we have a few years left if that truly is our fate, and my predictions for future top line acts in order of likeliness are St. Vincent, Alt-J, the Xx (however the fuck that is capitalized,) Passion Pit, Kendrick, Portugal. The Man, Japandroids, and Local Natives.
Second/third line peak predictions are Deap Vally, Divine Fits, Purity Ring, JEFF the Brotherhood, Django Django.
(1) Damon Albarn (2) Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds (3) King Khan & His Shrines (4) Ty Segall (5) Ms Lauryn Hill (6) Darkside (7) Kanye (8) Janelle Monae (9) Goat (10) Meshuggah.
I could easily see the National being a pre-headliner/Which stage closer, given their next album continues past success.
Do you mean in the future? They're the 9th band on the lineup (not including Tosh), I doubt they're anything but a pre-headliner or Which closer this year.
This is the first message board I've ever been on, the only reason I joined is because I love Bonnaroo and wanted to read and talk about it all year long.
Its an interesting point when you are talking about real headliners, like top 3 headliners. We discussed this quite a bit in the Speculation and Wishlist thread in 2012. I mean, where are all the headliners? The pool of legendary musicians and long awaited reunions of legendary bands continues to shrink. The rampant growth of the American festival industry, coupled with the shrinking/reorganization of the music business has made it near impossible for a band to achieve headliner status. At some point, these older rock legends are going to start retiring, and then who is going to play the big stage to close out the night?
Lots of smaller acts receive passionate followings, but how often will say a Mumford and Sons, or Arcade Fire happen? And how long will they stick around at their current level of popularity? And even those two acts don't approach the level of prestige or majority acceptance like a Paul McCartney or Prince does.
It seems like the only genre that is currently developing headliner level of popularity acts is EDM. Maybe I'm just being shortsighted, and eventually rock will come back around, and a White Stripes will come out of seemingly nowhere that strikes the level of resonance with enough people to make them viable headliners.
Not to go off topic, but there are acts out there what will headline that have not headlined before. MMJ, Black Keys, Some for of Jack White, Phoenix, Muse, The Killers, Coldplay, Kanye return maybe, Jay-Z, Beyonce (I wouldnt be surprised if this happened), Vampire Weekend (after another album or 2), The Lumineers (I am convinced it will happen in about 3 years). I am sure there are more, but that is what I could think of off the top of my head. There are 12 acts I listed which could get Roo about 4-6 years of headliners taking into account Phish, DMB, and WSP all playing 1-2 times in that time. Not to mention Prince, The Who, and whatever other classic acts I am forgetting. Also, there will be acts within the next 5-6 years that will blow up or acts we don't even know of yet. My point is that there are headliners out there. We might not like them as a whole, but they will be booked at some point.
Yeah, with the way Arcade Fire and Mumford jumped to headliner status after a Grammy win, it is totally possible for one of these bands to get a headliner spot in the future should they win a Best Album. Grizzly Bear/The Lumineers/Of Monsters and Men all sound like the type of groups the Grammy voting constituency would consider. Jim James/MMJ is an outside shot. Not to mention dozens of bands that aren't playing Roo this year. Without future records considered, I think there is a deep pool of artists that could be considered to headline:
Rock:
U2 The Who Black Keys Aerosmith White Stripes/Jack White Phoenix Coldplay (I'm going to list some bands that I don't like that will get shit but are big enough gets) Rolling Stones Muse (maybe) Gorillaz Kings of Leon David Bowie M83 The Killers Smashing Pumpkins Queens of the Stone Age Blur Depeche Mode Beck Pearl Jam Santana The Cure Weezer Jane's Addiction Foo Fighters Pixies Talking Heads reunion Dire Straits reunion
Rap/Hip Hop:
Jay Z Kanye OutKast
Pop:
Prince Beyonce (could work, definitely a ticket seller) Lady GaGa (I might get flak for this but she's a huge act and actually is out there enough to give off Roo vibes. An older audience than Rihanna, T-Swift, Beiber, etc.) Justin Timberlake Madonna Usher Elton John
EDM:
Daft Punk Portishead Kraftwerk Justice Deadmau5 (It's getting likelier by the year that we get an EDM act that will send inforoo into an uproar) Tiesto Avicii David Guetta Calvin Harris
"Sunday Headliners" (a lot of these artists can play on other days but artists from other categories wouldn't typically play Sunday):
DMB ABB Bruce Springsteen Phish WSP (bleh) String Cheese Any Dead configuration Neil Young Black Crowes? Eric Clapton Ween reunion The Eagles Billy Joel John Mellancamp Avett Brothers Bob Dylan
Oh, and quacking Swans and Purity Ring as well O.o
Really? Do you honestly think that Swans has the sound that appeals to enough people to be Headliner/Preheadliner status? Nothing against Swans, I like them, but there's no way they're blowing up anytime soon.
Haha, yea. It only took Swans 30 years to even get to the level of popularity they are now outside of underground post-punk and industrial circles. With the last couple of releases they have moved toward a more (albeit still pitch-black, and very good) post-rock style and have become slightly more accessible. Their old material sounded like being unwillingly sodomized with a rusted blade by a group of nihilist bikers in an abandoned industrial warehouse while your loved ones watched in horror. And I mean that in the best way possible.
They won't be pre-headlining for Beyonce or someone next year.
Billy Joel/The Eagles wouldn't be that bad for a Sunday act (5th and 6th best selling US artists of all time). They could easily transition Sunday to a classic act instead of the jam band slot that's been reserved to a too limited group of artists. That's why I listed String Cheese/Ween/Black Crowes, you'd start having to dip into second tier jam band acts to diversify after awhile.
M83 shouldn't be there but I love them and think they could end up being the type of group to sweep in and win a Grammy like Arcade Fire/Mumford did. Same goes for Fleet Foxes, Vampire Weekend, MMJ, The Shins, Alabama Shakes, etc. Almost every year there will be a group that can make the jump from 8-10th listing to top 3 based on a hit record.
Either way, I was just trying to make the point that there a lot of potential headliners for next year and beyond. I don't support every artist I listed, I was just going by record sales in a lot of cases.
