How Lollapalooza Changed Rock Music Forever
During its trailblazing heyday, Lollapalooza provided an unparalleled platform for the alternative. The problem was that by doing so it made the alternative mainstream, which ultimately caused the summer music festival to betray its roots—an inevitable evolution that stands as the most fascinating aspect of Lolla: The Story of Lollapalooza, a nostalgia-fest which understands that all good underground things must either die or become the very thing against which they rebel.
Ironically, Michael John Warren’s three-part Paramount+ docuseries (May 21) is somewhat undercut by a similar dynamic, given that its own desire to end on a happy note means that it must ignore the fact that there’s no going home again to recapture the magic that made a sensation truly sensational in the first place. As a result, it’s ultimately more promotion than critique.
Lollapalooza launched in 1991 as the brainchild of Perry Farrell, frontman for the paradigm-shifting band Jane’s Addiction, who—along with cofounders Ted Gardner, Don Muller, and Marc Geiger—viewed it a way to channel the spirit of England’s Reading Festival (and its ilk) by bringing together an assorted line-up of artists on a single stage. Designed as a farewell for Jane’s Addiction, which planned to disband once this run of shows was completed, it quickly blossomed into an invigorating new take on an old format. Attendees were offered not just one great performance after another, but a common area filled with local avant-garde artists, social activist booths that sought to raise awareness about guns, the environment, and voting, and additional attractions that made it an immersive day-long experience directly attuned to the era’s youth culture.