Drawing in more than 100,000 music fanatics each day, this year’s Lollapalooza exposed emerging talents to the spotlight and spectators garnered by pop culture’s top performers. Whether catapulted by TikTok fame or decades into their career, up-and-coming artists took to festival stages with enthusiasm and verve.
In 2021, singer-songwriter Cassandra Coleman auditioned for American Idol with arms crossed and hands tugging at the hem of her dress — literally “making a shell” for herself. Four years later, just two months after releasing her debut single “Coming of Age,” the folk-pop artist performed it at Lollapalooza with arms flung wide open.
“Even like a year and a half ago, I would have been singing it and I would have been crying because of heaviness that I feel towards changing and mourning the past,” Coleman said. “Now when I sing it, it’s almost like I’ve twisted it into a different version of the song. Now it feels more like optimism and excitement towards the future.”
Beginning her professional performance career at 29, Coleman said her age has raised doubts about her aspirations for success in the music industry.
Pushing past the societal hourglass obscuring her pursuit, the Tennessean worked her way into recording studios with industry veterans like Jack Antonoff and Bleachers. Now performing at Lollapalooza with only one song released, Coleman has proved it’s never too late to create music.
“I felt today a lot of pride in my age and where I am,” Coleman said. “I think it’s just a beautiful reminder that persistence is important.”
One of the youngest acts at Lollapalooza, 20-year-old Bo Staloch said festival opportunities are hugely important for young artists like himself.
Staloch recognized the scope of festivalgoers’ musical interests and said he took advantage of the opportunity to win over those who don’t naturally gravitate toward the alt-folk genre.
In surreal moments — like playing to his largest audience yet at Lollapalooza — the genre-spanning folk artist said his band keeps him grounded.
“I’m just surrounded by so many friends that are so dang talented,” Staloch said. “It’s cool to be in those circles and grab inspiration from them because they’re amazing.”
The Nashville-based crew — made up of his college orientation leader, a high school friend of his brother’s and a drummer mistaken for him at a house party — created new slang as pre-performance nerves evolved into excited humor.
“We were like, ‘this could be history,’” Staloch said. “We made it into ‘this could be social studies,’ and we shortened it to ‘this could be sosh.’”
Four years into her professional music career at 21 years old, singer-songwriter Jade LeMac said she has mixed feelings about how fast time has passed between the release of her debut single “Constellations” and her Lollapalooza set.
“This whole entire experience is so awesome,” LeMac said. “I think it’s just the beginning.”
Since dropping “Constellations” at 17, the Canadian artist has put out two albums and is releasing an EP titled “It’s Always At Night” Nov. 7. Stacking her setlist with songs from all three projects, LeMac said she loved how interactive the crowd was listening to unreleased songs like Aug. 15 single “running home.”
Using her festival platform to reach new listeners, the performer said she hopes her alt-pop tunes captured attention and garnered anticipation for her upcoming music.
“With this EP, it’s just a new chapter of my life,” LeMac said. “I feel like I was really able to find my sound with a lot of these songs.”
As EDM shot into the mainstream in the early 2010s, Hex Cougar was a University of Southern California student who loved hip-hop and post-hardcore music. Inspired by big names like Skrillex and Lex Luger — who he adapted his stage name from — Hex began paying tribute to his musical roots by infusing infectious EDM with elements of trap and emo.
Now, he’s stood in the shoes of his inspirations, looking through shoots of pyrotechnics to waves of jumping fans at Perry’s stage.
“I just look back at my myself as that kid that was watching these DJs that I idolize on the huge stages and being like, ‘Wow, literally now I’m that guy that’s behind the stage,’” Hex said. “It’s fucking crazy.”
While setting and crowd size evolved since his last performance in Chicago more than seven years ago, the DJ said he approaches each set with the same fervor.
“Whether it’s like 10 people, 100 people, 1000 people, 10,000 people, I’m gonna bring the same energy,” Hex said. “It’s gonna be the same experience. I’m gonna give it my all.”
On the heels of a 20-year hiatus, bôa’s Lollapalooza debut has been a long time coming, according to lead singer Jasmine Rodgers.
Becoming inactive after dropping albums “Twilight” and “get there” in 2001 and 2005, respectively, the alt-rock group reemerged into the limelight as their song “Duvet” was given new life on TikTok in 2021.
With two additional decades of life under their belts, bôa — now a threesome composed of Rodgers, bassist Alex Caird and drummer Lee Sullivan — quickly fell back into a songwriting rhythm when crafting their 2024 album “Whiplash.”
“Over the last 20, 30 years we’ve had lots of people messaging us, so we have this direct knowledge of how our music has affected them and how the words mean something,” Rodgers said. “I was kind of writing a lot thinking of these people and sending my love.”
Living proof of the internet’s all-powerful and heavy-handed control over the modern music scene, bôa has witnessed major shifts in the music production and performance processes, Rodgers said. Despite decades and industry changes, the band said their primary audience has remained young.
With nearly 30 years experience performing to swathes of 20-somethings singing every line to “Duvet” — bôa’s Lollapalooza crowd no exception — Rodgers credits the evergreen relevance of their work to thematic throughlines of self-discovery.
“I think that feeling of trying to find my place in this world, maybe that relates to a lot of people trying to find that kind of thing,” Rodgers said. “Curiously, though, it doesn’t change. You’re still always figuring out who you are.”
