PALM SPRINGS, California — “Can I ask for a favor? I haven’t asked for much,” screamed Jack White into the microphone on Coachella’s main stage Saturday night. “Put down your cellphones for five seconds … Let’s do this together!”
It was an earnest, if not brave request to ask of the mostly millennial audience attending Coachella's first weekend. Most seemed distracted by their Snapchats and Periscope videos.
The statement says a lot: how quickly Coachella has evolved in only the past few years from a festival for die-hard audiophiles and band groupies to a weekend event centered around #ootd pics and flower crowns.
Case in point: those who tweeted Friday night asking who the band AC/DC was.
@monsterkev30 I don't even know who they are but each to their own lol #ACDC
— LAURA (@missmuckyduck) March 25, 2015
@swimmingmoose who te fuck is acdc are they the latest indie band from brroklyn
— dawn davenport (@Euro_Trash_Girl) April 12, 2015
After a six-year hiatus, the Australian rock band made their long-awaited performance, headlining on Friday’s main stage. The crowd was mostly composed of old timer rockers in dad jeans, arm’s length away from the millennials and Gen Z show-goers who rocked their own AC/DC shirts they probably copped from Hot Topic.
You may be ah coachella but I doubt you even know a single song by ACDC.
— jules (@killahwhalee) April 12, 2015
In the Twittersphere, AC/DC came in at No. 5 for most trending artists at Coachella. They trailed Tame Impala at No. 4, Porter Robinson at No. 3, Azealia Banks at No. 2, and Alesso taking the top spot.
Top hashtag trends for Friday were hardly surprising; they went to Kendall Jenner, Justin Bieber, Crop Top, #iphonepic and Ferris Wheel (the ride, not some obscure band you've never heard of).
On Saturday, over 2.2 million tweets were sent anticipating Tyler the Creator's set, which came in at No. 1. Este Haim joined Hozier on stage for an epic collaboration on The Time's 1984 classic, "Jungle Love." This performance came in at No. 2.
A video posted by Charley Ficken (@yemalope) on Apr 11, 2015 at 7:13pm PDT
The top mentioned emerging artist went to FKA Twigs, with fiancee Robert Pattinson spotted among the crowd in support.
A photo posted by Tommy Lei (@mybelonging) on Apr 12, 2015 at 11:50am PDT
Big trending hashtags: @coachellafshn, Party, Outfits, Tired and, of course, Slay.
Saturday night concluded as The Weeknd took the stage with a moody set. The crowd roared with 25-year old's rendition of Beyoncé's "Drunk In Love," and when rapper Drake was spotted walking toward the front of the stage to Ariana Grande's "Love Me Harder."
A video posted by OVO_FANS_OVO (@ovo_fans_ovo) on Apr 12, 2015 at 12:32pm PDT
But The Weeknd failed to take the top trending spot on Twitter. In a cruel twist of irony, that accolade went to Jack White, who apparently, failed to stop the kids from tweeting. We all know, Jack, that's asking for way too much.