Oasis singer blames rap for festival’s low sales

Booking Jay-Z to headline Glastonbury show a bad decision, Gallagher says

MAX NASH / AFP/Getty Images

British rock musician Noel Gallagher blasts the decision to book rapper Jay-Z as the headliner for the Glastonbury festival, a cornerstone of Britain's music calender. This year's show has yet to show up, and the Oasis singer says it's because rap is not part of the event's tradition.

Interviews, performances

Singing monk to quit metal band
Nov. 13: 63-year-old Italian monk "Brother Metal," is quitting as singer of a popular heavy metal band after he says the devil has turned him into too much of a celebrity. Msnbc's David Shuster reports.

Tim McGraw: 'Katrina really hit close to home'

Train performs ‘Hey Soul Sister’

A look at intimate moments with jazz artists

2009 CMA Awards: Taylor Swift: ‘It felt like a dream’

updated 4:45 p.m. ET April 20, 2008

LONDON - Organizers of one of Britain's best-known music festivals on Tuesday defended their decision to book Jay-Z as their headline act after Oasis songwriter Noel Gallagher blamed the U.S. rapper for disappointing ticket sales.

The outdoor Glastonbury festival is a cornerstone of Britain's music calendar. But this year's festival has yet to sell out, in contrast to past years when tickets were snapped up within hours.

Gallagher, whose band headlined the festival in 1995 and 2004, said rap was to blame.

Story continues below ↓

advertisement | your ad here

"If it ain't broke, don't fix it," Gallagher said in an interview, an audio of which was posted to the British Broadcasting Corp.'s Web site Monday. "If you break it, people ain't gonna go. I'm sorry, but Jay-Z? ... No chance." He explained that the inclusion of a hip-hop act went against the festival's tradition of guitar music, adding: "I'm not having hip-hop at Glastonbury. No way. No. It's wrong."

Glastonbury Festival co-organizer Emily Eavis said the 38-year-old festival had a long history of attracting rap acts, including Cypress Hill and The Roots. She said the media stir over Gallagher's comments revealed an "innate conservatism" in some sectors of British society.

"There is also an interesting undercurrent in the suggestion that a black, U.S. hip-hop artist shouldn't be playing in front of what many perceive to be a white, middle-class audience. I'm not sure what to call it, at least not in public, but this is something that causes me some disquiet," she said in an article published Tuesday in The Independent newspaper.

Eavis said she thought Jay-Z was "absolutely the right act" for the festival.

Click for related content

Jay-Z and Beyonce reportedly tie the knot
Jay-Z close to $150 million Live Nation deal