Kanye West was booked as a festival headliner. Brands are now pulling their sponsorship

When I heard Lauryn Hill was one of the people supporting his redemption arc tour, I was like “lol he’s not showing up anyway, who cares?”

This is the perfect setup for a pull out joke. I can’t think of one.

Kan't Ye

Glad he pulls out cause I sure dont

Monoculture doesn't really exist anymore. And festival tickets are always super expensive. Kids can't afford them.

Social media and Spotify happened, honestly, as well as over here a few other things that are absolutely f****** key to the whole thing. Going to frame this from the UK perspective, as the article is about a festival here. This fits more into the indie/band side of things, but it's had a huge impact everywhere. It wasn't too long ago (it wasnt. I swear) that we were in the 90s and 00s, new artists were able to work, live comfortably and write and play music professionally. Or even not work, and the dole would keep them going  music spread like wildfire through radio, music channels and top of the pops. Indie artists became big out of touring pubs and clubs, local radio and then naturally, national radio spread the word, the TV shows that everyone watched each week put them out to a larger audience. People at school would trade their own cassette, and later cd, mixtapes. Gigs and festivals were reasonably priced. Bands could pack their van, get onto the channel island ferry and a few hours later be ready to tour Europe with little hassle whatsoever other than navigating the wrong side of the road. Now? Everything is f****** expensive. Rent has literally quadrupled, places like London are even worse. House purchases unattainable for many, and with everything going up in price drastically, forces people to work full time, or over full time, or more than one job to stay afloat. Benefits have been slashed. University was free. Now it's £9k+ a year, with insane interest on loans. Where can new bands form and practice when everyone is working their f****** arses off and there's no f****** venues to play or practice in?? 15,800 pubs have closed in the UK since 2000, many on the more recent side of history due to insane rents, energy bills (uncapped for businesses), and business rates. 35% of the UK's grassroot music venues have shut over the same period, largely for the same reasons with 125 venues closing in 2023 alone. Where are new bands to play? Where can they be heard? The internet? Good f****** luck getting the same following online as you would have done in your local community and nearby towns playing live. Going abroad? Nope. Brexit. F****** forget it. f****** nightmare. Ticket to gigs were a tenner (my stubs for Radiohead and Blur prove it). Now? £100+, at least. Local radio? Doesn't exist anymore - it's all owned by f****** Heart, or other large firms with playlists set by central office. Bastards. So what happens next? Instead of bands being brought to attention by means of local word of mouth, branching out, they are thrown into the deep end, against everyone else in the world online. Who wins? Those with money. Who stays heard? Those with money.  That's why. And it's only going to get worse. BBC Radio 6 tries their best to make new artists heard, but what - 3 minutes of airtime and that's it? That's not going to make up for what was lost. 

Whether we like it or not, Kanye has the catalogue to make him a headlining performer of any major festival. It’s just that pesky evil personality of his…

What do you mean, do you really not think new artists are blowing up just because Kanye West was performing at one event? Have you never heard of Chappel Roan, Sabrina Carpenter, Olivia Dean, etc? 

you’d be shocked at who headlines and who opens for who

Yes! And we used to be able to ignore certain older stars who quietly fall into obscurity, while they became reclusive, conservative, conspiracy theorists. Now it's like we are perpetually stuck with these idiots, while a whole generation of young people (with less proveable money-making guarantee) never get a chance to one day become old and the washed up, or even afford rehab. They can't even quit their dayjob to tour.

For real for real name 1 new male hip hop artist who has blown up in the mainstream in the last 5 years. I’ll wait.

Like it or not, Kanye is still a hugely popular artist. Why wouldn’t they want an artist of that caliber headlining?

3 companies run the entire music industry and they choose what gets played and what doesn't via streaming. They play is "safe" and refuse to sign artists with any true artistic ability and expression (or speak about relevant political topics). Nobody listens to Gunna yet he's always showing up on my suggested playlists. There are plenty of more "underground" artists that are incredible but they will never get the chance to headline. At the end of the day though, it's up to the artists to do something about it. I'm old and the new rap just doesn't hit. How many times am I going to hear about how much money you make when my news and social feeds are telling me everyone is having a hard time affording groceries and gas. It's so f****** out of touch

They ain't talented enough for the artist to be separated from the artist, like Ye.

The older people are the only ones who can afford the tickets anyways.

100% agreed. It’s been disheartening scrolling through comment threads about him and his recent shows in LA on social media. So much excusing of his behavior. The new rhetoric is “if you’re still mad at Kanye then you’re the problem” and of course they’re using his mental disorders to excuse him 🤪

Once you’ve said ”I f****** love Hitler” you’re done. You cant (and doesn’t deserve to) come back from that.

Antisemitism is the main issue, I don’t really care how much or how little celebrities wear to events it’s not like Bianca censori is the only celeb to ever show her body off at a red carpet event.

Being bipolar can't make you a douchebag? I'm assuming you have nobody in your life with bipolar lol

Just an FYI, his wife has come out and said she chooses to dress the way she does. She's always been provocative. What she did say about Kanye was that he'll help her with her outfits sometimes.

South Park was ahead of the curve yet again

being bipolar definitely CAN make you a douchebag, and this comment is just revealing that you don't know anyone with the disorder or don't care to understand it.

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Or elected officials

Seems like a bunch of shitty don't care though.

He has 73 million listeners on Spotify, even after the Heil Hitler

Go check his SubListnook. All the fans suddenly forgave him for being an anti Semitic POS once he dropped a mediocre new album. The mental gymnastics they use to defend him is absolutely wild.

Really sad to see him still sell out stadiums easily

There’s material harm happening in the world

He just debuted at #2 on the Billboard charts this week too. Would have been #1 if BTS didn’t release too

Starmer wants him to stay out.

His fans are like a cult. The way they’re defending him right now and acting like what he’s done and said in the past is no big deal is scary. Another version of MAGA/

Sponsors for the *festival* are pulling out, not sponsors of Kanye directly. He was just announced as a headliner.

He was announced as the headliner a few days ago and then sponsors started pulling out

No… genius, they just found out he will be the headliner.

Are you aware of the massive corporate consolidation happening in the US especially over the last few decades? Shouldn’t we be celebrating people who are going against this establishment even if their methods are extreme? How else would he have gotten out of the adidas deal?

Kanye song?