Glastonbury Organizer: ‘There Aren’t A Lot Of New Rock Acts’

Glastonbury 2024 took place over the weekend. The legendary festival has long attracted a diverse bill, but in recent years, there are seemingly fewer and fewer rock acts on it.

This is something Glastonbury organizer Emily Eavis addressed in a new interview with The Telegraph. The interview is behind a paywall, but the headline reads, "Emily Eavis says there are not enough new rock acts for Glastonbury."

Fortunately, Louder published some of Eavis's comments about booking rock acts for a festival. Eavis argues that there are seemingly criticisms about every Glastonbury bill. However, Eavis notes that every Glastonbury bill "reflects what's happening in the music world at the moment."

She added, "There aren’t a lot of new rock acts to choose from if I’m honest. Hopefully that will emerge again, my heyday was 1995 with Pulp and Oasis and Radiohead... and that was great but music changes all the time and right now this is where we’re at."

Regardless of how these comments make any rock fan feel reading this right now, they should be taken to heart. Not a single rock album has topped the Billboard 200 album chart, so far, in 2024. In fact, here's a breakdown of every rock/rock adjacent album that topped that chart from 2019-2023. (And yes, I am being generous when including "rock adjacent" albums.)

Hozier - Wateland, Baby!
Vampire Weekend - Father of the Bride
The Raconteurs - Help Us Stranger
Slipknot - We Are Not Your Kind
Tool - Fear Inoculum

Machine Gun Kelly - Tickets to My Downfall
AC/DC - Power Up

None (Yes, really!)

Machine Gun Kelly - Mainstream Sellout
Red Hot Chili Peppers - Unlimited Love

Blink-182 - One More Time...

Chart-wise, rock is in a sad state. By no means is rock and roll "dead," to harken back to Gene Simmons's comments in a 2014 piece from GQ. However, rock has been far from the mainstream for a number of years now. Musicians and fans alike can probably name the pros and cons of that situation.

What it comes down to is this: If you're fine with rock and roll not being mainstream, then carry on, and thanks for even reading this far. If you're not fine with rock and roll not being mainstream, perhaps there needs to be an examination as to why this is. Sure, music tastes change with every generation, but why has rock taken such a hit?

This is an examination this author wishes would happen. It's not an exaggeration when I say that rock and roll saved my life as a teen. I want nothing more than the genre to be robust for generations to come. But in order to have this conversation, many people in power in the music industry need to get comfortable about being uncomfortable real quick.

The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame has honored many artists who are still with us, but they've also delivered a number of posthumous inductions. The latter is something that stuck in the craw of Dee Snider.

The Twisted Sister took to X (formerly Twitter) on May 11 and wrote, "DEAR RNR HALL OF FAME...There are bands who YOU KNOW are going to eventually be inducted because of their huge influence. How about NOT waiting until the entire band is DEAD? The MC5 are being inducted next month. The last living member died yesterday. RIP MC5. #ThatSucks."

As previously reported, the MC5 are one of four artists being honored with the Musical Excellence Award as part of the 2024 Rock Hall induction class. The Musician Excellence Award is "given to artists, musicians, songwriters and producers whose originality and influence creating music have had a dramatic impact on music."

While being recognized by the Rock Hall is a long overdue honor for the MC5, unfortunately, as Snider stated, all members of the classic lineup have died. Drummer Dennis Thompson died on May 9 from a heart attack at age 75. Former MC5 manager and counterculture icon John Sinclair died on April 2 at age 82. Guitarist Wayne Kramer died shortly before Thompson on February 2 at age 75.

Before a brutal 2024 wiped out the MC5, the band suffered two major losses in the 1990s. Singer Rob Tyner died in September 1991 at age 46 from a heart attack. Three years later, guitarist Fred "Sonic" Smith died in November 1994 also at age 46 from heart failure.

So, with all of this bummer news in mind, perhaps this is time to list some artists that we hope will get into the Rock Hall before they die. Obviously, this is a very short list, but it's a solid jumping off point for more discussion. As we all know, there's always plenty to discuss when it comes to the Rock Hall.