“Ye-ikes”: What’s the music industry coming to?

The world’s most famous music festival returns this summer after two years of pandemic-related cancellations. Flower crowns, macrame and high-out-of-their-mind influencers will once again flood our feeds. That’s right, Coachella is back and – probably – worse than ever.

It’s ruled by pop music’s king Harry Styles, joined by headliners Billie Eilish and Ye – who many are currently trying to petition out of the festival. The return of this event is controversial enough without bringing Kim Kardashian’s ex into the picture.

In case my thoughts have not yet become clear, I think Coachella is a waste of time and money, that is if you can even get your hands on the ridiculously overpriced tickets. This festival is representative of everything wrong with the music industry today.

To understand what is wrong with the industry, we have to take a few steps back. Let’s start in the ‘90s, a time of reckoning in the music world. Twenty or 30 years ago, Generation X was led by true models like Kurt Cobain and Eddie Vedder who challenged the capitalist agenda within the music industry. They showed a passion for music aside from the money involved that we haven’t seen before or during their time.

Gen. X did this, they managed to almost remove materialism and money from the music industry. Then, millennials came along and like anything else in their time, they materialized it. They reduced the charts and the scene to who could shake the best butt in music videos that took hundreds of thousands of dollars to make. But, come on, they’re (mostly) the children of Boomers, what else could we have expected?

With Generation Z becoming older, primarily the children of Gen. X, we have seen a resurgence of caring about what pop stars think, do and say, just as much as we care about the music. But somewhere we went wrong. If Styles holds up a Pride flag at a concert and shows up to a Black Lives Matter protest, that’s enough for us. That is enough for us to overlook the fact that he is pimping himself out, selling overpriced nail polish and performing at festivals like Coachella alongside Ye.

My thoughts? It’s not right. So many Gen Z’ers claim to hate capitalism and whine about their disdain for the system. Yet, they’ve allowed it to infiltrate their music.

The lead singer of The 1975, Matty Healy, has famously said he believes Coachella is a massively superficial environment. This isn’t hard to see when the audience generally appears to be filled with influencers who have been paid to be there and are only viewing the live performances through their phone.

Coachella is no longer about the music but rather the money. As a fan of music, I can’t be upset by musicians who play at the festival. I’m not naive. I understand we can’t expect all pop artists to be anti-capitalists. Sometimes we have to let Styles and Eilish get their coin and leave.

With the first weekend of Coachella 2022 quickly approaching, it’s a reminder to not get sucked into the continuous cycle of influencer promotion. It’s so not worth it. And hey, I can enjoy pop music with the best of them, but we can do more to make sure artists are motivated to create music that brings us all together and packs meaning.

Now, I know what you’re thinking to yourself right now: ‘How can I support local music here in Calgary this summer?’ I was hoping you’d ask!

With any remaining Alberta COVID-19 restrictions hopefully being a thing of the past, there should be more live music to listen to here in Calgary than ever before. Always start by checking out your local live music venues like the Blues Can, King Eddy and Dickens Pub to see if any fun, fresh talent is performing. Don’t be afraid to do your research, or just show up!

Aside from local shows, check out some of Calgary’s biggest music festivals like Sled Island this June 22-26, The Calgary Folk Music Festival from July 21-24 or Country Thunder from Aug. 21-23.

If these still aren’t enough, the Calgary Stampede always brings some sick acts to town!

Support your local talent… and suck it, Coachella.