|
I'm all for pushing people's expectations and getting them to confront prejudices within their own cultural habits. The safe bet for Glastonbury would be for them to book the usual array of suspects: Muse, Radiohead, whatever. the logical choice for the much coveted (career was) Pyramid Stage headline slot this year would've probably been Sigur Ros. And so I applaud Glastonbury's decision to book Jay-Z. The fact that all it'll really achieve is giving thousands of Radiohead fans an opportunity to listen to a black rap artist before sending them back home to their copies of Kid A is not Michael Eavis' fault, nor is the fact that, in Jay-Z, he chose one of the least interesting figures in rap. Maybe next year he'll take the next step and book Wiley. It won't happen of course (primarily for commercial reasons) but the idea that a festival that has for so long been linked with a certain type of music is looking outside of its comfort zone is nothing but a good thing.
|