Major Lazer (2016)

One Liner: Dancehall EDM from Diplo and many friends

Poster Position: 2
Time Slot: Friday at 8pm.  The dreaded slot up against Radiohead.

Thoughts:  This guy [Edit, there are apparently two other people in the band with Diplo, at least I think they are people, apparently named Jillionaire and Walshy Fire] was here just two years ago for ACL, although he was only the fourth, not the second, line of the poster.  I was not terribly impressed at the time.  That hasn't changed much over time.  You've probably heard a few of his tunes, as they are those now-ubiquitous electronic dance songs with Caribbean flair that are suddenly very popular. This isn't as bad as Kygo, but its right there in the same wheelhouse.

His most popular track has over 839 MILLION freaking streams on Spotify, which is absolutely insane.  I doubt that anyone else has anywhere near that amount who is coming to the festival this year.  That tune features DJ Snake and MO, which may account for some of the popularity, but damn! Here is "Lean On"

Holy Hannah, that video has fucking 1.5 BILLION (yes, with a B) views.  Good sweet baby Jesus in a bowl of banana pudding.  What is wrong with people?  Such an uninteresting song to me.  I'd never try to hear it again.  For second place, I serve up to you the one with 460.4 million streams, and then a buttload more of views on YouTube, this one is called "Light It Up," and features something called Nyla and Fuse ODG along with Major Lazer.

Another generically pleasing track - its like it doesn't get as hyped as the other EDM that makes you want to do backflips on a trampoline made of burning diamonds, but instead it just kind of farts along with a nice rhythm, before a little synth horn tune slides out and brings you back down to the ground.

He's got a bunch of collaborators on these songs, Bieber, Wild Belle, Ty Dolla $ign, Travis Scott, Ellie Goulding (although the one with her, "Powerful," is truly bad), 2 Chainz, Ariana Grande, Santigold, Ezra Koenig, Shaggy, Bruno Mars, etc. etc. etc.  Three albums (2009's Guns Don't Kill People ... Lazers Do, 2013's Free the Universe, and 2015's Peace is the Mission) and then a bunch of singles.  I thought I'd enjoy this stuff, after listening to the Wild Belle track during my time writing about them.  Instead, none of this is really touching me. Here is that track, I know its nothing much for a while, but then wait for the bass to kick in.

My guess is that this is another band that would be fun to jam out to live, but just lacks any excitement when sitting here at my desk trying to divine a purpose for listening.  Thankfully, being against Radiohead, I don't have to make that call.