JAKARTA - Blur and Gorillaz frontman, Damon Albarn, has again launched a scathing criticism of the prestigious US music festival, Coachella.
After Blur's performance went viral due to the audience's cold reaction in 2024, Albarn openly mentioned the incompatibility between his band's identity and the festival atmosphere, which he now considers to have shifted to a mere stage of social media content.
Reflecting on his experience standing on the main stage at Coachella, the British musician felt there was a wide gap between the music Blur performed and the expectations of festival visitors.
He also did not hesitate to say that Coachella has lost its essence as a music festival and has turned into a representation of digital culture.
"Maybe there was a little bit of a mismatch between us and the festival. It's kind of the embodiment of social media now, isn't it?" Albarn said in a recent interview with Rolling Stone.
A similar sentiment was also echoed by his colleague at Gorillaz, Jamie Hewlett, who said that the behavior of the audience at Coachella has changed drastically compared to other conventional music festivals.
Hewlett highlighted how mobile devices dominate the attention of visitors rather than the stage performances of the musicians who perform in front of them.
"This is the only festival where the phone is not directed at the stage, but rather at the person holding the phone itself," said Hewlett, referring to the selfie and social media imaging trend that is rampant among influencers at festival locations.
Blur guitarist Graham Coxon also reinforced Albarn's views. In a separate interview with NME, he described performing at Coachella as a strange and very restrictive experience.
Coxon felt there was a strong emotional disconnect when a musician traveled a long way just to perform in front of an audience who seemed to not care.
"You travel 14 hours to get there, then you play for people who don't care. They look at you as if to say, 'who is this old man?'" said Coxon.
This sharp criticism comes amid Damon Albarn's busy preparing Gorillaz's latest album, "The Mountain", which is scheduled to be released on March 20.
The album is said to have a deep emotional feel as it is inspired by Albarn and Hewlett's personal journeys to India after losing their respective fathers.
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