Interesting: How the genre balance at Glastonbury has evolved over the year
Glastonbury is the world’s best-known music festival, so what happens there is scrutinized by the both the music and festival industry. A British company called iProspect has deconstructed Glastonbury in terms of musical genres over the decades.
Back in the 70s, a little more than 58% of the acts at Glastonbury fell into the Rock category. Today, rock makes up just 17% of the acts.
Well, what about other UK festivals? There are also similar analyses of Reading/Leeds, Download, Isle of Wight and more.
Reading
& Leeds
- Rock artists at Reading and Leeds have almost halved since the 80s
- Whilst ‘Dance’ acts have increased by 10%
- Hip Hop, RnB, Grime and Reggae acts now account for one in 10
artists, of which there were none in the 80s
Glastonbury
- Glastonbury started out with 58.15% of artists in the Rock category
in the 70s, which has now dwindled to a mere 17.21% - Hip-Hop, RnB, Grime and Reggae now account for more than 10% of
headline acts in the last decade at Glastonbury
Lovebox
- Dance festival Lovebox kicked off with 43% of artists in the
‘dance’ genre in its first two years, which now only accounts for 26% - RnB and Soul artists at Lovebox were far and few between at the
start (>4%) but now account for almost one in five artists (19%)
Isle of
Wight
- Isle of Wight and Download have stayed closest to their roots.
- At Isle of Wight festival, Rock and Indie have always been large
fangroups, starting out with 38% and 33% respectively in the first four
years, with both categories decreasing by less than 10% over the course of
events – significantly less than the likes of Glastonbury and Reading
& Leeds. - Pop music accounted for just 2.5% of acts between 2002-2006 and now
accounts for more than 10% – showing the festival has embraced more
‘mainstream’ artists
Download
- Metal music has remained at a constant proportion throughout
Download’s history, making up one quarter (25%) of acts on the main and
second stages - The coverage of Emo and Death Metal bands has reduced from 12% to
just 5%, and even reached a low of 3.6% between 2011-2014 - Newer sub-genres like Rap Rock have grown in popularity over the
years with presence increasing from a 1.8% to 5.5%
Creamfields
- Known for it’s dance festival scene, Creamfields is home to some of
the world’s top DJ’s - Techno has decreased significantly since the first event in 2001,
dropping from a 17% presence to less than 2% in recent years - Trance has also reduced as a category but not as much as Techno,
dropping from 32% down to just 9% - Whilst EDM, Electro and Tropical House have all grown in
attendance. EDM has made the biggest jump from 2% to 28% during the 17
year period analysed
Boomtown
- Known for it’s tribute to world music, Boomtown is filled with
Reggae and Dub artists but in previous years we’ve seen a large drop in
the number of artists in this category. Between 2009-2010 they accounted
for 39% of acts but dropped to less than 10% (7.49%) between 2013-2014,
and has since seen a resurgence making up one fifth of acts in 2017-2018. - The number of Trance, House and Dubstep artists has gradually
increased since the start
Wireless
- Wireless kicked off with a 35% proportion of acts in the Indie
genre category in the first two years, which then halved between 2008-2010
– the other half taken up by an influx of Hip Hop artists. - This shift away from Indie and towards Hip Hop, RnB and Grime
continued over the years, which resulted in 49% of acts in 2017-2018 being
Hip Hop and no Indie acts present. - Grime acts increased from 3% to 19%
- RnB saw growth from less than 1% of artists to 7% in recent years
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About the Author
Alan Cross is an internationally known broadcaster, interviewer, writer, consultant, blogger and speaker. In his 30+ years in the music business, Alan has interviewed the biggest names in rock, from David Bowie and U2 to Pearl Jam and the Foo Fighters. He’s also known as a musicologist and documentarian through programs like The Ongoing History of New Music.
