“It caters to mass popularity in a way Disneyland does”: Sonic Youth’s Thurston Moore on why major festivals like Lollapalooza have abandoned rock bands
From Jane’s Addiction to Metallica, Lollapalooza has had some iconic rock acts fronting it over the years. However, the last decade has seen a shift towards rappers and popstars, with the 2025 lineup only having one single rock-adjacent headliner in the form of Korn.
So why has Lollapalooza turned its attention away from rock music? In a new interview with Rolling Stone, Sonic Youth’s Thurston Moore insists it’s because society just doesn’t care about rock music any more. “This is the advent of the single popstar surrounded by production, whether it’s dancers and lights and films and stage sets,” he says. “It’s become very sort of Disneyfied, in a way, and it caters to mass popularity in a way Disneyland does.”
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The focus is on what’s the most ‘entertaining’ to the average, mainstream music consumer. It’s easier to sell tickets if the line-up is less niche and more broad. Moore notes how the festival is more of a mixed bag nowadays, catering to “the core rock & roll audience that would see Led Zeppelin or Pearl Jam” as well as “people who aren’t that invested in rock music at all, but are invested in entertainment as a broader kind of concept”.
“It has a broader appeal than, say, the standardised rock band,” he notes. “There are still rock bands, but they’re not just playing Lollapalooza.”
He also notes that, right now, rock bands “aren’t the success stories they once were”. Of course, society’s fascination with rock music comes and goes; Beatlemania saw a spike in rock ‘n’ roll buzz, while the early 2000s saw the likes of Linkin Park topping the charts.
Right now, the masses are just loving pop – which, according to Moore, isn’t necessarily a bad thing. “I think all of those musicians are completely credible,” he notes. “Olivia Rodrigo and Chappell Roan are great artists.”
“I just went to see Lana Del Rey, and it was kind of amazing!” he adds. “There was a stage set of a farmhouse, and she was walking in and around it and had dancers everywhere… It was something to see. I liked it. I like her music, and I like what she’s up to aesthetically.”
The mass success of pop acts isn’t negative, either – in fact, Roan and Rodrigo are great role models. “It’s not just crass entertainment,” Moore says. “More power to them. It’s not really my kind of music. And I certainly don’t strive for that kind of mass acceptance at all. I know it would be great for my pocketbook, but other than that…”
However, Moore does believe that the pendulum will swing back. While high-production pop is ‘in’ right now, audiences will soon be craving some gritty and organic. “My predilection is to hear music in a much more intimate setting,” he says. “I like seeing the interaction between musicians that’s very organic. You know, a musician playing guitar that’s plugged into an amp…”
And, of course, underground scenes are still thriving. “There’s still a demographic of young people interested in experimental rock music and anything that comes out of punk culture,” he says. “It’s not Olivia Rodrigo huge… To me, it was always cooler to have a modest kind of existence in that respect.”
While underground scenes might not be given their flowers on the big stages, he does note that a smaller scale of success is sometimes what suits rock ‘n’ roll best. “The big business of rock & roll was a bit of a conflict for somebody like Nirvana’s Kurt Cobain to all of a sudden be in a band that was so massive,” he reflects. “He dealt with it in his own way, and then he didn’t deal with it in his own way.”
Last year, Moore surprised Sonic Youth fans by reuniting with his former bandmates Lee Ranaldo and Steve Shelley for an hour of improvised music at the New York club The Stone. However, there isn’t any serious Sonic Youth ‘reunion’ on the cards. “That was about as much of a reunion as us having dinner together or something,” he laughs.
Outside of his musical work, Moore is also working on his debut novel. Rolling Stone reports that the book is set in the early ‘80s and will navigate the New York music scene. “It’s characters and incidents I certainly felt like I could write about,” he explains.
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