Features The Age-Old Excuse: Are Festivals Reaching Too Far Into The Past?

Last week Primavera and Coachella announced their line-ups. People were pretty excited. Hell, I was pretty giddy myself. They are, I think most people would admit, spectacular line-ups. But as I thought about it a little more there was something else that these festivals reveal, which isn’t quite as thrilling.

Music fans could be forgiven, when looking at the top of the festivals’ bills, that they’d been taken back to a time where mp3s, texting and Jedward were just distant dreams. Let’s take a look at them. Heading up the line-up at Primavera are Blur, My Bloody Valentine, Jesus and Mary Chain, Nick Cave, Dinosaur Jr and Dexys Midnight Runners. (The fact that four of those acts - Blur, JAMC, MBV and Dinosaur Jr - all toured together on 1992′s Rollercoaster tour probably says a lot). Then Coachella got in on the nostalgia ticket a couple of days later. Among their headliners are The Stone Roses, Blur and the Red Hot Chilli Peppers.

Now of course it doesn’t matter how old the people are who make music and not many would deny that they aren’t all special bands who have produced seminal work (ok, maybe not the Red Hot Chilli Peppers). Indeed some of these bands have made music that even today, nearly 25 years after it was produced, still sounds like nothing else around.

But the line-ups do highlight an age-old problem, or rather an old age problem. They are all bands who have been going for over 20 years – and it’s not as if many of them are playing these festivals to promote new material. And the problem is not limited to these festivals – Primavera and Coachella’s booking policy is indicative of where music festivals are heading. I mean Elton John is headlining Bestival.

And the rumour mill is rife with talk of who will be headlining Glastonbury – The Rolling Stones (combined age of 273), Fleetwood Mac (combined age of 259) - though this has now been ruled out - or even, fancifully, David Bowie (combined age of 66). Rumours that we will also see a hologram of John Lennon and the Beatles appear unfounded.

Looking at the last few year’s headliners points to a similar theme: U2, Coldplay and Beyonce; Stevie Wonder, Gorillaz and Muse and in 2010 it was Springsteen, Neil Young and Blur. And Pulp, The Cure, Pavement and the Pixies have been headliners at Primavera recently. And, of course, last year Coachella featured a hologram of Tupac performing, which seems to be taking this idea a little too far. Nearly all of these artists have been supremely influential – but surely we should now be looking for the bands that they have influenced?

That doesn’t mean there isn’t exciting music being made. Of course there is, there always is. And it’s not to say there aren’t excited younger acts lower down the bill of these festivals – just take Savages, Death Grips and Jessie Ware for a few examples of newer acts doing exciting things in wildly different fields.

But looking at these festivals does beg the question: where will the next headliners come from? There don’t seem to be any obvious, really fascinating candidates. I mean I’d love to see King Krule headlining festivals in a couple of years but it doesn’t quite seem possible really.

The “build ‘em up and knock ‘em down” attitude of some sections of the music press and the immediacy of the internet, which creates buzz as soon as an act release one song on Soundcloud, means bands have shorter and shorter lifespans. Every year there are new bands hyped as the ‘next big thing’ and splashed across the cover of every magazine, pushed as the band who are ready to make the next step, but who don’t have the longevity to make it. We all remember the names. Klaxons? Franz Ferdinand? Kaiser Chiefs? The Others!? These are bands who are still around, still creating music, but still a million miles from headlining the Pyramid Stage. We’re left with less esoteric bands filling that void – and when Mumford and Sons or Kasabian seem like the only hope you know you’re not in a good place.

It also seems interesting that this homogenisation of festivals is occurring as the internet actually makes music more fragmented and more interesting. The end of year lists for 2012 threw up the most diverse lists we’ve seen. But the way that it used to work, with acts growing organically and emerging into the spotlight ready to turn heads as headliners, seems to have evaporated. The economics of nostalgia certainly seem wrapped up in this. In a recessionary climate, when many festivals are folding, it would take a brave booker to put less established acts at the top of their festival. Inevitably they’re going to play safe going for acts who will bring in the money. These older bands have an advantage of a larger fanbase and are a bigger draw. It also represents a chance for fans to use the festival as a time machine and reminisce about times when music ‘meant more’ and innovation was still alive and they can mutter to each other that ‘Back in my day we would never have listened to Enter Shikari.’

But this constant reaching back in to the past to relive great music makes things a bit too predictable. The best festivals surprise. When Pulp stepped in for the Stone Roses in 1995 and headlined Glastonbury no one gave them a chance (Different Class hadn’t even been released) – yet it’s still widely regarded as one of the best shows in the festival’s history. And Jay-Z’s triumphant headlining set on the same stage was another that was something a bit different from the norm and all the better for it.

Pop culture has always been about ‘nowness’ and seizing a moment but this fixation on the past means that instead of creating new memories we find ourselves reveling in the safety of nostalgia. There’s a danger that festivals are becoming museums for people to relive the best parts of their youth.

Maybe Phoenix are the answer. It may come as a shock to many that Coachella and Primavera have chosen them as headliner – but at least they are giving a band the opportunity to make that leap to stardom. Let’s hope some other bands get that chance.