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[title]Though originally a small, crazy, travelling rock festival, Lollapalooza chose Chicago as its permanent home in 2005. From that first Saturday in Grant Park, Lollapalooza became the city's favorite summer event. Every year there are more acts and more stages, and over the last ten years the Lollapalooza has transformed from a Chicago-local weekend to one of the biggest and most popular music festivals in the U.S.
We took a look at the ways in which the demographic of Lollapalooza has changed since its settlement in Chicago, to explore how the festival has developed since becoming a part of our city. What once was a bastion for '90s alternative has diversified with greater numbers of hip-hop, pop and electronic acts.
It's no suprise to see the continued dominance of indie and alternative rock from 2005 to 2014. In 2014, though, hip hop and electronic music are much more heavily feautured, and are placed higher up in the lineup. Lollapalooza 2005 saw an entirely rock and alternative rock-based headliner list with the Pixies, Widespread Panic, Weezer and The Killers. This year, The Kings of Leon share their space with Eminiem, Outkast and Skrillex.
So. Lollapalooza is still not quite up to date on gender equality. Still, female representation has slowly increased over the years, and this year a female solo act, Lorde, features just seventh on the lineup. Lollapalooza loves American and British bands. Canada, Australia and, suprisingly enough, Sweden, alternatively appear as the next most common countries on each lineup. The festival's international project, with the launches of Lollapalooza Chile in 2010 and Lollapalooza Brazil in 2011 can be seen to have influenced subsequent Grant Park line ups. At least one Chilean band featured on each lineup from 2011 to 2013, and bands from across Latin America from countries like Brazil, Colombia and Mexico are becoming more and more frequent. Lastly, just for kicks, we decided to check out how band naming fashions have changed over the years. Whilst classics such as "the" bands and animal bands seem to have started to die out after the glory days of 2010, TimeOut Chicago is proud to inform you that, according to our detailed research, spelling your band name wrong just keeps getting cooler. This year we saw Gramatik, Outkast and Brillz (how do you even deal with a name like Skrillex?), next year, if the trend continues to rocket, we'll be forced to rebrand to keep up. TymOut Shicago anyone?