Lollapalooza by Richard Bienstock and Tom Beaujour Memories

I posted a five star review of the book Lollapalooza by Richard Bienstock and Tom Beaujour  in Goodreads and other book review sites. The book gave me an insight into something about life that I wondered about.

The 1991 tour was the first time these outsider bands and groups came together. The 1994 edition was more pop and the crowd that went to that tour wouldn’t follow the bands from the 1991 edition. By 1997, it was just another rock festival. The rap artists that were on the main stage in 1991 had been pushed to the second stage with no inter-mingling with other genres. Less aggressive bands were mocked.

In some ways those outsiders of the 1991 tour changed music as later bands cite Jane’s Addiction as their inspiration. Other ways, Sonic Youth didn’t get a lot of attention, but everyone they worked with became big. Rollins Band never got a Top 40 album, but Henry Rollins has had television work. Who remembers the band, Living Color? I’ll bet the Roots do.

This festival designed to foster different views and people became homogenized and violent. Perhaps Generation X wasn’t a big part of Lollapoolza after all. The original Lollapooloza crowd may have got media attention, but maybe they were never the big crowd or sign of a generation.