In 2025, Lollapalooza Has Shed Its Rock Past for Good
The post In 2025, Lollapalooza Has Shed Its Rock Past for Good appeared first on Consequence.
Lollapalooza has revealed its 2025 lineup, with Olivia Rodrigo, Tyler, the Creator, Sabrina Carpenter, and RÜFÜS DU SOL serving as the festival's big four headliners. It's the first time in Lolla's history that a rock band of some sort isn't headlining.
If anything, the 'rock' headliner is Olivia Rodrigo this year, whose occasionally-feisty catalogue is inspired by the plethora of bands who've closed out Lollapalooza stages in years prior: Rage Against the Machine, Jack White, Arctic Monkeys, Nine Inch Nails. But as undeniable as Rodrigo is, her name feels less like a treat for Chicago's rock crowd and more like an appropriate companion to acts like Gracie Abrams, TWICE, and fellow headliner Sabrina Carpenter.
Get Lollapalooza 2025 Tickets Here
This seems to be the biggest takeaway of the festival's 29th edition, which goes down in Grant Park from July 31st to August 3rd. The festival has gradually shed its rock-tinged layers in favor of electronic music, hip-hop, and mainly, pop (and alt-pop, for what it's worth). This is neither a good thing or a bad thing, as Lollapalooza can only afford to scale towards whatever is most contemporary and will bring the highest percentage of attendees. But for a certain festival-goer, this lineup represents that eventual changing of the guard when it comes to rock bands at multi-genre events like Lolla.
Don't get me wrong: there are definitely some rock bands on this lineup. There are some good ones, too: Chicago's own Ratboys are hidden within the undercard (perhaps with some new music?), they've finally booked the whirlwind Japanese punks Otoboke Beaver, and there're plenty of rising rock acts that are worth getting to Grant Park at 2:00 p.m. for, like Wunderhorse, NewDad, La Femme, Julie, and Girl Tones.
But as welcome as these groups are on the lineup, they aren't exactly unified under the larger-font rock names, which are literally just Korn and Cage the Elephant this year. The latter's billing outside the top line is actually a bit of a surprise, especially considering the selection of alt-rock radio acts that have a sizable overlap with Cage's fanbase (Wallows, Flipturn, Foster the People). With their 2024 comeback album, Cage the Elephant have once again reaffirmed their status as one of the biggest alternative rock groups around, period. And yet, they've been out-billed by Korn, who are more or less on the lineup as a novelty act.
That's not to say Korn doesn't have a great output or wouldn't absolutely rip it at sundown in Chicago, but it's such a random nod to the now-reappraised nu-metal scene that they look strange on the poster. I'd almost expect them to be paired with the new iteration of Linkin Park, who have pretty much exclusively opted for the Danny Wimmer Presents fests like Sonic Temple and Welcome to Rockville instead of anything put on by C3 Presents or Goldenvoice/AEG.
In fact, it's those same DWP festivals that are boasting the lions share of active rock bands in 2025, which might explain why fests like Lolla and Coachella aren't bending over backwards for them. Previously, the acts that would play, say, Florida's Welcome to Rockville were the harder-edged groups you'd see at Mayhem, Ozzfest, or Warped Tour. This year, they've got Green Day, Incubus, Jimmy Eat World, Sublime, Taking Back Sunday, and the aforementioned Linkin Park — all of which could justifiably accompany Korn's 'nostalgia rock' position on Lolla's 2025 lineup, but are instead now grouped into DWP's more general 'hard rock' scene that's completely independent from the other multi-genre fests.
Similarly, with the dissolution of Pitchfork Music Festival in Chicago this year, it seemed like Lollapalooza had a golden chance to secure the type of acts they've been regularly competing with their summer indie counterpart for. But the indie rock selections are lacking more than ever. Clairo, Mk.gee, and Magdalena Bay are some of the strongest inclusions (though they are closer to indie pop these days). Still, there are ton of active indie artists that would look terrific on this lineup, like a reunited TV on the Radio or Rilo Kiley, plus Japanese Breakfast, HAIM, Bon Iver, Lucy Dacus, Beach House, Fontaines D.C., Wet Leg, Perfume Genius, Horsegirl, Big Thief… the list goes on.
Perhaps these names will continue to appear on Riot Fest lineups, who have begun to lean in the opposite direction as their Danny Wimmer Presents rock fest counterparts and embraced more indie rock, post-punk, and shoegaze than ever before. Or, more cynically, the demand for these types of artist just isn't high enough anymore for organizers to invest in. Bands with multiple members are expensive, and even the few rock-adjacent acts with backing bands are fronted by a solo artist (like Djo, Bleachers, and Still Woozy). The more realistic course of action for organizers is to go full Kilby Block Party or Just Like Heaven and curate an indie-specific mix within a smaller festival presentation; and yet, that's what Pitchfork was, and even that couldn't make it another year in Chicago.
So, Lollapalooza continues to shy away from the genre that it made its namesake from, and this lineup feels like the final nail in the coffin. While it may seem like a tragedy to the guitar-loving rock fans of yore, it's worth noting that even if more big-ticket rock bands were booked, the majority of Lollapalooza attendees might still have avoided them anyway. Case in point: My first Lollapalooza was in 2012, where I skipped out on seeing a reunited Black Sabbath (I know, idiotic move) because I was 16 years old and wanted to see The Black Keys instead.
But for Lollapalooza's countercultural origins, it's not like the 2025 lineup is completely without its haymakers. Looking around at the poster and there's a new class of hyperpop and hip-hop adjacent artists who fall through the cracks of their genres in service of a new kind of punk. Bladee, Jane Remover, 2hollis, and Xaviersobased are just a few of these sonic rebels that bring crushing noise, inspired detours, and a post-everything attitude to their music, making their inclusions on the lineup an example of Lolla's insistence on looking to the future.
Still, with the festival's rock-focused past now in the rearview, Lollapalooza has established the new global, pop-centric identity that its cultivated over the last decade. It may look different than the days of Trent Reznor caked in mud or the DIY spirit that the early days of Lolla boasted, but at least we know one thing: Olivia Rodrigo and Korn will be ripping it in Chicago the same weekend, and that's a feat in and of itself.
In 2025, Lollapalooza Has Shed Its Rock Past for Good Paolo Ragusa
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New York Post
3 hours ago
- New York Post
Inside the secret society of ‘real life vampires' — and the arousing secret of how they drink blood
Mobsters. Doctors. Politicians. Musicians. What's the common thread connecting this motley crew? Advertisement They're all in Australia's secret society of real vampires. Spawned from the goth subculture, this shadowy community – known as a 'vampire court' – now includes Aussies from all sorts of walks of life. 16 Stemming from goth subculture, this shadowy community – known as a 'vampire court' – includes Aussies. Andrey Kiselev – Think real vampires are just pale people drinking red cordial? Think again. Advertisement To many of its followers, the true blood lifestyle is about much more than fashion. It's about survival. And though they might not transform into bats or live forever, they do drink real human blood, wear surgically-enhanced fangs and let loose at vampire balls. 16 Followers drink real human blood, wear surgically-enhanced fangs and attend vampire balls. Gillie and Marc/Youtube Advertisement These days, their ranks are being quietly pumped by social media and the decline of religion. Just don't ask these creatures of the night to throw light on their very dark way of life. They claim they keep to themselves and aren't dangerous. But critics claim some vampires use this cloak of secrecy to exploit people. So are they really monsters? Medical mysteries? Or just misunderstood? Advertisement 'I want revenge' For centuries, vampire folklore has compelled us. Tales of bloodsucking beasts can be found in ancient cultures around the world including First Nations people. But in the last few decades, they've been forever fixed in pop culture as a romanticized symbol of finding identity in the world. This romanticism is at the heart of the complex history between real vampires and Sydney local Crystal, who does not wish to share her real name. On one hand, Crystal claims they've drugged her. Drank her blood without consent. 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Yahoo
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Charli XCX, Sabrina Carpenter and Chappell Roan: Inside Primavera's pop takeover
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San Francisco Chronicle
9 hours ago
- San Francisco Chronicle
Kunié Sugiura's groundbreaking art gets long-overdue spotlight at SFMOMA
During a recent morning stroll through her new solo exhibition at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Japanese artist Kunié Sugiura paused in front of a wall-size photo of herself that was taken 53 years ago in a New York gallery. 'I don't even know who she is,' said the 82-year-old photographer with a smile, looking bemused at the image of her younger self. In the 1972 photo, Sugiura stands in front of one of her early photocanvases, one similar to those on view in the SFMOMA survey exhibition 'Kunié Sugiura: Photopainting.' It's a semi-abstract photograph of a detail from nature, maybe beach sand, ash or a Central Park stone, which she blew up and then printed by hand on photosensitized canvas, applying graphite to accentuate contrast. The result, like much of Sugiura's work from the 1970s on, looks surprisingly contemporary. She started creating hybrid work that played with the boundaries between photography and painting years before it was popular, and yet Sugiura has only recently received the attention from museums and collectors that she deserves. Just last year, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York bought two of her photopaintings, and the SFMOMA acquired two of the standout images in its exhibition — her 1969 photocanvas 'Yellow Mum,' the cover image of the exhibition's accompanying catalog, published by MACK; and 'Deadend Street' (1978), a sculptural photopainting that juxtaposes a gritty street in Queens, N.Y., with monochromatic black painted panels, divided in the center by empty space. 'Kunié started making color photographs as art at a time when pretty much nobody else was,' explained Erin O'Toole, who curated the SFMOMA show and serves as head of photography at the museum. 'I think that's likely why her work took some time to get attention, because people didn't quite know what to make of it.' O'Toole went on to explain that there was a perceived divide in the art world well into the 1970s between painting, deemed expressive, and photography, regarded as more formal and purely representational — 'Kunié insisted on blurring that boundary.' Unlike the young black-haired artist who exudes tough-girl cool in the 1972 photo, with her arms crossed and her thumbs looped in her bell-bottoms, Sugiura today is calm and cheerful. She said it was gratifying to see more than 60 works from her six decades of artistic experimentationon view together. Touring the newly installed show prompted her to recall positive memories and fruitful, collaborative friendships – like with 94-year-old artist Ushio Shinohara, who's depicted splattering paint with boxing gloves in one of her bold photograms from 1999. 'People might not know this about me, but my life has been the best of the best,' Sugiura said. 'I'm happy I've found a way of life and of working that's stayed interesting for so long.' The SFMOMA exhibition dedicates a room to each chronologically distinct phase in Sugiura's career, spanning from the 1960s to 2021, featuring photocanvases, photopaintings, photograms and x-rays. 'I couldn't believe that her work had never been the subject of a major exhibition in the U.S.,' said O'Toole, who started planning the SFMOMA show after visiting Sugiura in her New York studio three years ago. 'I could already envision how dynamic an exhibition of the full arc of her career could be.' Sugiura was born in Nagoya, Japan, at the height of World War II. Before she turned 2, her father was killed in a U.S. military bombing of the munitions factory where he worked. She showed artistic ability as well as scientific promise from a young age, and enrolled in a women's university in Tokyo to study physics before making the radical decision to apply to art school in the United States. In 1967, just a few days after graduating from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, where she had been influenced by conceptual photographer Ken Josephson, Sugiura moved to New York and began her ongoing exploration into new ways to approach photography. Her early experimentations involved coating large sheets of canvas with liquid photo emulsion, also called 'liquid light,' which created unique and surprising results. Working at home and at a large scale, she had to use her bathroom as a darkroom and would wash the massive canvases in her tub, wearing a swimsuit to avoid ruining her clothes. She recalled feeling 'very happy' with the results, and it allowed her to marry her science background with creative darkroom improvisation. 'I think like an Impressionist painter,' said Sugiura, 'but I was glad that I didn't have to just do painting because I was very frustrated by it. I also didn't want to just create simple black and whites (with a camera). I saw possibilities in making large images on canvas, a material people assume is for painting.' Her best photopaintings, like 'Deadend Street' (1978), marry Sugiura's eye for natural or architectural detail with an urban sophistication. Unlike Andy Warhol and Robert Rauschenberg, both of whom she cites as influences, she used her own photos, rather than screenprinting mass-media images. Stuck at home during the COVID pandemic, Sugiura revisited her anatomical x-ray series, which she had begun 30 years earlier. During a 1990 hospitalization for a collapsed lung, she became fascinated with the mysterious, anonymous beauty of x-rays which were then printed on thick film stock. 'When I was in the hospital, every four hours they were taking x-rays,' she recalled. 'I said, 'I want to see what you are looking at. I think I could do something very interesting with these images.'' The doctors agreed to give her other patients' discarded films, as long as she blacked out their names (which would surely be a HIPAA violation today). She amassed a sizable collection and created a series of haunting, surprisingly beautiful images. 'X-rays are innocent of gender. Man or woman, we all have the same structure. I might be weird, but I find that beautiful,' she said, standing in front of her large 2021 work 'Vertebra,' a massive grid of spinal column x-rays connected by colorful, interchangeable painted panels. Sugiura said she still makes art almost daily in the same fourth-floor Chinatown loft she's lived and worked in since 1974. 'I used to try to separate living and working, but the whole place is now a place for work,' she said. 'I work every day as much as I can, and I love it.'
