Pitch analysis shows the younger generation of ‘Millennials’ shaping the conversation around Glastonbury 2015.
Glastonbury 2015 was the year of the Millennials, after Kanye West, a sex tape and One Direction dominated the social media conversation.
Kanye West’s self-proclaimed title of “greatest living rock star on the planet” didn’t seem far from the truth as Kanye was the most talked about artist in the Glastonbury line-up, with 10% of all social media posts regarding the iconic festival referencing the controversial rapper.
Our social media analysis sampled 1 million conversations, found that Kanye generated more than double the conversation of the five following most popular acts (Florence and the Machine, Lionel Richie, Pharrell, the Who and Paul Weller) – who combined only generated 39,000 conversations. Given the festival’s rock heritage this may come as a shock to many as it appears the festival may be forced to evolve its identity in the coming years to appeal to the live-sharing and consuming nature of the younger ‘millennial’ generation.
| Talking Point | Conversations |
| Niall Horan and Louis Tomlinson | 122,000 |
| Kanye West | 90,000 |
| Kim Kardashian and Ray J | 50,000 |
| Florence and the Machine | 16,000 |
| Lionel Richie | 13,000 |
| The Who | 10,000 |
It wasn’t just Kanye who outshone his fellow headline acts on social media. The number one topic of discussion during his set was the infamous sex tape involving his partner Kim Kardashian and her ex-boyfriend Ray J after festivalgoers produced a flag using an image from the tape. In fact, the flag was the third biggest topic of discussion after Kanye during the festival with more than 50,000 conversations emanating from it.
The Millennial shift was even more evident with One Direction’s Niall Horan and Louis Tomlinson being the most discussed artists across social media when referencing Glastonbury 2015, despite not even performing at the festival. The duo were pictured in the VIP area on Friday.
