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The lineup for southern California’s inexplicably located rock festival was recently announced, and I think that both the organizers of Coachella and the LA Times writers must be nearly 80 years old. The Times claims that organizer, Gary Bongiovanni has tried to attract a younger audience for this year’s festival by building a package “around Pavement, Public Image Ltd.”

Wow

I didn’t know that a band started in 1978, with a 53 year old lead singer would bring a bunch of spoiled indie/emo kids from southern California out of the woodwork. Maybe Pavement has the ability to allure the perfect youth audience. You know the kids we’re talking about, those born the same year that Pavement started their career.

So, that takes care of a couple of the big names, surely the youth can be found elsewhere. Let’s see what the Times said

The Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival will bring a youth movement to the low desert this year. After several years of graybeard headliners, California’s signature festival is going back to the future with younger acts including Gorillaz, Muse, Jay-Z, Thom Yorke

Blerg

While it’s true that Jay-Z (40) and the Gorrillaz (band created last century) led by Damon Albarn (41) have large youthful followings, I’d argue that they still have a fair share of mid-30s and hip 40 year old fans. Muse has been blowing up of late, but it’s amazing to me how few people knew about them 5 years ago, when they were 15 years into their careers. Hey, look at that, Muse has been around as long as the youngest member of the Coachella demographic, while Pavement has been around as long as the eldest.

It gets worse from there folks, Thom Yorke ???? (41), Faith No More (started in 1981), Them Crooked Vultures (featuring the reanimated John Paul Jones at 64)…where is this supposed youth?!

Now, before we get all up in my business about ragging on the old folks, let’s take a step back. Am I saying that none of these acts deserve to play Coachella? No. They all do, and frankly I’m thrilled that this time around Muse will get some attention. I was at Coachella in 2004, and they were given a mid-afternoon slot that attracted only their hardcore audience of kids that bought from the import shop. I’m glad that Paul McCartney isn’t the headliner this year. I’m glad that Pavement is playing. I’m not jaded.

However

I do think that using “youth” as the story here is blatant manipulation. None of these acts are “youth.” MGMT, they’re young; and shit, they’re popular too. That’s the angle the Times and Coachella should have taken instead of trying to lie to us about middle-aged rockers being appealing to the “youth.”

Tags: music industry, music news

This entry was posted on Monday, January 25th, 2010 at 9:55 pm and is filed under Blog.