Leadership / 08.29.19

The Evolution of Festival Genres in the U.K.

Access Staff

Pollstar (08/22/19) Gottfried, Gideon

A study from e-cigarette and vape brand Blu found the number of rock artists on the lineups of some of Britain's most popular festivals has fallen by nearly half since the 1980s, breaking down how genres have matured over time. The Glastonbury, Reading and Leeds festivals expressed particularly significant changes, with the hip hop/grime genres especially notable. In Glastonbury, such artists went from nonexistent to prominent by the 1990s, with the next stage of evolution arriving in 2008 with Jay Z headlining the festival. In 2017, 15.47% of the event's lineup was grime and hip hop acts, and concurrent with this was a decline in rock artists. In 2017, only 11.9% of Glastonbury's bills were rock music, while indie music was most represented that year with 23.81%. Electronic music made up 17.86% of the festival's acts that year, consistent with significant representation almost every year since the 1980s. Blu found hip hop to be the most dominant genre last year, comprising 20.34% of the cumulative lineup.

Read the full article on Pollstar.

Tags: Music , News