SZA

[FloopFiller]

4 minutes ago, CaledonianGonzo said:

Anyone catch her at Primavera?

 

Doesn't sound like it was a massive d@b up by the sounds of it?

Didn’t go myself but general thoughts seem to be it was good/fine but nothing mind blowing, so pretty much what is expected of her at Glastonbury. 

[wozwebs]

Her gig at Hyde Park is currently on Blue Light Tickets so looks like it's bombed, sales wise, having to give freebies out this far out from the date too. Usually happens a week or so before but not 19 days.

[4AssedMonkey]

To be fair, I don't think the efests/SZA venn diagram has huge overlap.  However I also think it will be a fairly light crowd.  I'm getting lots of Glasto based chat from Muggles (as I do ever year about this time) and no-one, from teens to my age (50) seems to give 2 shits about SZA. Most over 25 have never heard the name, those under 25 who have are ambivalent at best.  "Yeah, I like a couple of songs." etc.  However, I think the whole of Sunday around headliner time is fairly weak (maybe apart from Justice) so who knows.  Maybe she'll get a boost from people who want to give it a go and aren't amazed by any of the alternatives.

[Wooderson]

Sunday as weak as I can remember. West Holts going to be jammed not only for Justice but also for Nia Archives.

[kugglaw]

I'm not saying SZA is the ideal pyramid stage headliners, but it's strange to hear people talk about SZA like she's an indie artist with a couple EPs out. I think there's a few factors at play. 

 

a) she caters to a demographic quite different from the kind of people that want a repeat Churn Ups appearance or are stoked to watch Kasabian's secret set. 

 

b) American R&B artists are way way more popular on their home turf. There's a bigger, more diverse audience. SO it's feasible that they'd be a huge, record breaking artist...but not as broadly well known over here. There's loads of artists like this. 

 

c) the people that posters have turned to for anecdotal evidence of SZA's popularity are, regardless of age, of the same tastes and backgrounds. Conversely, I think if you asked a lot of SZA fans who Keane are for example, they'd have no idea who you were on about. 

 

d) It strikes me that there's always this kind of grumbling online when someone outside of the guitar-oriented milieu gets a significant slot at Glastonbury? There's a race element that's nuanced, awkward and uncomfortable to talk about. 

 

 

Edited June 10 by kugglaw
missing words

[crumbler]

1 hour ago, wozwebs said:

Her gig at Hyde Park is currently on Blue Light Tickets so looks like it's bombed, sales wise, having to give freebies out this far out from the date too. Usually happens a week or so before but not 19 days.

Kings of Leon also on there so it's not just her.

 

I think those who end up going to watch her out of curiosity will be pleasantly surprised.

[Tiesto13]

51 minutes ago, kugglaw said:

I'm not saying SZA is the ideal pyramid stage headliners, but it's strange to hear people talk about SZA like she's an indie artist with a couple EPs out. I think there's a few factors at play. 

 

 

b) American R&B artists are way way more popular on their home turf. There's a bigger, more diverse audience. SO it's feasible that they'd be a huge, record breaking artist...but not as broadly well known over here. There's loads of artists like this. 

 

 

I think this is the main one. If you were taking global spotify streaming as your metric of how big an artist was, then Dua Lipa/Coldplay/SZA is one of the biggest set of headliners Glastonbury have ever had. I've no idea how that holds up for UK streaming statistics but would guess that for Dua Lipa and Coldplay it holds up well but for SZA it falls down quite significantly. 

 

Again though, there is some confirmation bias here from everyone I know (largely aged 35+) not knowing who she is, but I have little idea how much her music cuts through with younger people in the UK. And really, I think that Glastonbury should be catering more towards the music favored by younger generations than it does older generations. And she has charted reasonably well it seems in the UK although not at the level you might usually expect for a headliner.

 

I guess its a bit of a tough one about how Glastonbury should deal with artists who are some of the biggest in the world but whom have a relatively poor UK presence. I wonder what people's views would be of Post Malone or Bad Bunny headlining.  

[4AssedMonkey]

1 hour ago, kugglaw said:

d) It strikes me that there's always this kind of grumbling online when someone outside of the guitar-oriented milieu gets a significant slot at Glastonbury? There's a race element that's nuanced, awkward and uncomfortable to talk about

 

I'm not so sure you can make this leap.  It's not 2007 and we aren't all Noel Gallagher.

 

I believe that the posters here and the people I choose to associate with IRL are all open minded and don't harbour prejudice.  I wouldn't spend time with them otherwise.  Based on my discussions within these groups, SZA is not an act of the size and popularity in the UK that you would expect to headline Glasto.  The same groups thought Jay-Z, Stevie Wonder and Stormzy were great bookings and could see the appeal of Kendrick.  Not so much this time round.

[gherkin8r]

If anything most of the grumbling on here seems to be about white, male guitar bands on the lineup. No idea what goes on in the wider world of social media etc as I don't have any of that nonsense.

[kugglaw]

47 minutes ago, 4AssedMonkey said:

 

I'm not so sure you can make this leap.  It's not 2007 and we aren't all Noel Gallagher.

 

I believe that the posters here and the people I choose to associate with IRL are all open minded and don't harbour prejudice.  I wouldn't spend time with them otherwise.  Based on my discussions within these groups, SZA is not an act of the size and popularity in the UK that you would expect to headline Glasto.  The same groups thought Jay-Z, Stevie Wonder and Stormzy were great bookings and could see the appeal of Kendrick.  Not so much this time round.

 

I wasn't saying your friends were racist, by the way and sorry if it came across that way. Not liking SZA doesn't make you or anyone a racist. 

 

I do however think that we are all capable of unconscious cultural biasses. And I think there wouldn't be as much widespread dubiousness if SZA were similarly "unknown" but happened to be a male 4-piece rock band. 

 

Again, really want to stress, not accusing anyone of the Big R. 

Edited June 10 by kugglaw

[gherkin8r]

4 minutes ago, kugglaw said:

 

I wasn't saying your friends were racist, by the way and sorry if it came across that way. Not liking SZA doesn't make you or anyone a racist. 

 

I do however think that we are all capable of unconscious cultural biasses. And I think there wouldn't be as much widespread dubiousness if SZA were similarly "unknown" but happened to be a male 4-piece rock band. 

 

Again, really want to stress, not accusing anyone of the Big R. 

This is a surefire way to arrive at the conclusion that anything other than delight at all things originating from other cultures is in fact due to unconscious cultural bias.

[kemosabe]

I'm really really hoping that Gen Z and the families/ picnic blanket brigade come through for SZA. Apart from anything else up and coming American artists might not bother coming over if they feel the crowd just isn't going to be there like it is on hometruf. And Glastonbury needs these kind of acts in an era when headline size acts are falling away. 

Reading between the lines on the Eavis Podcast it sounded like she was having to re-assure someone that the reaction on social media is the same every year, I'd imagine that would be SZA. 

[giantkatestacks]

SZA interests me far more than Dua Lipa as having listened to a few of her tracks it is much more orientated to a sound that I enjoy. I just dont think it is a genre that goes over as well in the UK. I am well used to turning up to stuff at Glastonbury I dont know that well and getting an education though - part of the fun for me. 

[LinvoyPrimus]

2 hours ago, Wooderson said:

Sunday as weak as I can remember. West Holts going to be jammed not only for Justice but also for Nia Archives.

 

I feel like the Sunday on the whole is good, there are just a lot of clashes around the Shania/Avril slots.

Main issue is that the headliners are too samey. Justice is the only act for anyone who wants to end their weekend with a bit of a party. Everything else is super chill.

[4AssedMonkey]

2 hours ago, LinvoyPrimus said:

 

I feel like the Sunday on the whole is good, there are just a lot of clashes around the Shania/Avril slots.

Main issue is that the headliners are too samey. Justice is the only act for anyone who wants to end their weekend with a bit of a party. Everything else is super chill.

 

Caity Baser on Avalon into Cam Cole on Peace Stage simultaneously say "hold my beer".

[Superscally]

2 hours ago, LinvoyPrimus said:

 

I feel like the Sunday on the whole is good, there are just a lot of clashes around the Shania/Avril slots.

Main issue is that the headliners are too samey. Justice is the only act for anyone who wants to end their weekend with a bit of a party. Everything else is super chill.

I'm just excited for something I think will be BEAUTIFUL at the Other...and I'm going hard on Saturday to make up for it. Also, driving on Monday, so Justice would be ill advised 😁

[Wooderson]

Bewildering stuff. Reckon 5/600 teenage girls adored that. 

 

Can we have a grown up discush about justifying booking acts based on streaming data now? An empty Pyramid causes problems for the fest elsewhere. All infrastructure is designed for field to take 60/70k minimum each night.

 

[sisco]

17 minutes ago, Wooderson said:

Bewildering stuff. Reckon 5/600 teenage girls adored that. 

 

Can we have a grown up discush about justifying booking acts based on streaming data now? An empty Pyramid causes problems for the fest elsewhere. All infrastructure is designed for field to take 60/70k minimum each night.

 

She wasn’t meant to headline. She was initially the Friday other stage header, got the bump up and sadly didn’t carry enough of the crowd 

[Drums Please Fab]

21 minutes ago, Wooderson said:

Bewildering stuff. Reckon 5/600 teenage girls adored that. 

 

Can we have a grown up discush about justifying booking acts based on streaming data now? An empty Pyramid causes problems for the fest elsewhere. All infrastructure is designed for field to take 60/70k minimum each night.

 

It walked like a duck and quacked like a duck since it was announced. 
 

And the gallery just didn’t want to hear it.

 

We even had accusations of racism a few posts up…

 

It was a complete and utter failure.

[Drums Please Fab]

On 4/5/2024 at 11:50 AM, Jacko45 said:

Could she get one of the smallest headline crowds ever?

winner winner chicken dinner.

[Wooderson]

19 minutes ago, Drums Please Fab said:

It walked like a duck and quacked like a duck since it was announced. 
 

And the gallery just didn’t want to hear it.

 

We even had accusations of racism a few posts up…

 

It was a complete and utter failure.

 

5 stars in Guardian.

[Drums Please Fab]

Just now, Wooderson said:

 

5 stars in Guardian.

Completely fatuous.

 

Typical of that rag though.
 

No way they would allow a black female to get any “welly” from the “mob”. 

[Wooderson]

2 minutes ago, Drums Please Fab said:

Completely fatuous.

 

Typical of that rag though.
 

No way they would allow a black female to get any “welly” from the “mob”. 

 

Rag?

 

You seem really "nice".

[crumbler]

Well at least the most insufferable old c**ts on here were proven right. 

[Drums Please Fab]

3 minutes ago, Wooderson said:

 

Rag?

 

You seem really "nice".

 

There is no way that was a 5 star gig Wooderson.

 

No way.

We are in handing out medals for 6th place territory here.