Corporatized Coachella and festival fatigue

Edition: US - Today's top story: Are there too many music festivals? [Click here to view this message in your web-browser](. Edition: US 15 April 2017 [[The Conversation]Academic rigor, journalistic flair]( Editor's note This weekend, Coachella will unofficially kick off America’s music festival season. While Coachella expects record crowds, many similar festivals had a disappointing turnout last year. [Does the country have festival fatigue?]( UMass-Amherst’s Jonathan Wynn explains how a growing corporate presence at many festivals has led to a creeping conformity that may be turning off music fans. As new Associate Justice Neil Gorsuch takes his seat on the Supreme Court, Daniel Rockmore and Michael Livermore use machine learning and text analysis to document [how the court’s rulings have shifted over time](, becoming less like a court and reading more like political messages. And today is Jackie Robinson Day in Major League Baseball, the 70th anniversary of Robinson’s debut for the Brooklyn Dodgers. While the story of his first game and season are enshrined in baseball lore, fans might not know about [the role politics played in his signing]( – or the insults and threats lobbed his way [during his first spring training in Florida](. Nick Lehr Editor, Arts and Culture Top story People watch Father John Misty perform at the 2015 Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival in Indio, California. Lucy Nicholson/Reuters [Are there too many music festivals?]( Jonathan Wynn, University of Massachusetts Amherst Music festivals have been a boon to the music industry, but now we're starting to witness some pitfalls of commercial success: consolidation and creeping conformity. 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