Historically, music festivals have functioned as a cultural barometer of sorts, showing which acts sell well. Festival lineups can also indicate certain trends; for instance, Coachella 2005’s adult alternative headliners like Coldplay, Snow Patrol and Keane are pretty indicative of its time.

It’s not anything new for festivals to use the power of nostalgia to sell tickets, and old dad-rock acts like The Rolling Stones, Paul McCartney, Dave Matthews Band and Tom Petty come to American rock festivals all the time to ensure each festival a big-name top billing. And while they may take spots from newer artists, it’s not such a bad thing.

Coachella brought the nostalgia factor to its lineup in a different way for this year, featuring two highly anticipated reunions at the top of its schedule. Dance-rock pioneers LCD Soundsystem is reuniting as a headlining act at the California festival after a short five-year retirement, followed by a tour and several other festivals worldwide. Hard rock legends Guns N’ Roses are getting their original band lineup back together for its first performance in 22 years. Calvin Harris, who obviously covers the festival’s need to attract a younger audience, stands as the third headliner.

If this festival lineup is to be trusted as a cultural barometer of what’s currently popular, we can figure that nostalgia is pretty trendy in music right now. For better or worse, people like seeing acts they’ve seen before.

Nostalgia’s role in this year’s festivals isn’t just to sell tickets, though. Guns N’ Roses’ reunion has been one of the biggest rumors floating around the music industry recently. Original band members like Axl Rose and Slash joining each other on stage again is far from a lazy artist selection on Coachella’s part. For hard rock and classic rock fans, that’s some of the best news you could ask for.

And LCD Soundsystem’s return is huge news for fans of the more contemporary rock and dance music scenes. In the five years that front man James Murphy and friends have been away from the band, a sort of posthumous respect for the band has built up excitement over an eventual reunion. Murphy’s spent his time off working on projects from David Bowie’s “Blackstar” to musically engineering the tones of New York City subway turnstiles. Regardless, his wide-ranging fan base is more than excited to see what the band has planned next.

Big reunions aren’t all this year’s festivals have to offer, though. Established festival acts like Kanye West, The Strokes and Pearl Jam, among others, are making appearances with new music to boot. What critics that complain about certain acts “repeating” at festivals too often fail to acknowledge is that most of the repeat artists will pretty often have exciting new material to perform. Sure, they’ll play their popular old material, but they’re showing up to test out new stuff as well.

I know I’ve been a little critical of overly nostalgic views on music fandom in the past. And yes, I still believe that hyper-obsession with certain dated trends in music can make for a stagnant community. But music festivals are meant to be places for us to celebrate the artists we love with other people that love them.
There’s no need for bitterness over oversaturated genres or acts when you see some of the same established acts taking the headlining spots over and over again. In this year’s case, some great artists with great backlogs are bringing back the energy their fans have been missing for years. When people get together and experience their favorite music with other people, they’re not thinking about how much they wish a different artist would get an opportunity to play on that stage instead — they’re just enjoying the music.

Published on January 26, 2016 at 9:02 pm