In 2025, Lollapalooza Has Shed Its Rock Past for Good
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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.
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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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