The Look: Coachella

BY DC CUEVA 

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Whether it's buying songs piecemeal to create my playlists for every major trip, having a brother in law who's done DJ gigs for a long time, or experiencing a meet & greet with my favorite band two decades ago, music is something that is a vital part of my daily life -- even though I am someone who doesn't sing or play an instrument. But live music is a different story: only a small handful of times that I have ever been to a concert -- most recently, a free live show by a local cover band on Fremont Street in downtown on my most recent trip to Las Vegas last Halloween weekend.

Every other time that I've seen musicians perform live has been through television or YouTube, most especially when we had to go through that dark time in our world that is thankfully now in our rear view mirror. It took for that long pandemic pause for music fans everywhere around the world to really and truly understand how vital concerts and live music are to the industry, and it took for the biggest summer blockbuster the music world had ever seen to bring that magic of performing of all of us once again. The immense impact of Taylor Swift's Eras Tour continues to cast an immense afterglow a year after it took to stadiums across America, shattering records and bringing her to greater superstar status.

However, it is only part of a live music story that features thousands of gigs -- large and small, chart-toppers and up-and-comers, and stadium tours to club shows -- that crisscross the country and the world every year... most especially when the summer comes around. As the live music season gets underway once again, music fans have something to look forward to: major festivals from EDM events in Miami and Vegas to Lollapalooza in Chicago and Bonnaroo in Tennessee... not to mention major tours, stadium shows and lots more. But over time, one event has grown to becoming THE event in American music.

It may not be the largest one of its kind... nor does it take place during the actual summer months themselves. But like golf at Augusta signals the arrival of springtime in the sports world, it's the annual gathering of hundreds of thousands of music fans, fanatics and those lucky to get those precious tickets to an event at a polo ground 120 miles from the country's second largest metropolis that has grown from humble beginnings to become the single most highly anticipated annual live event in American music. That is the case with Coachella -- now twenty-five years young.

DC ExtraTime: Team MTV's Postcards from Coachella 2018

BY DC CUEVA                     

■ @DC408Dxtr  @ TW / IG / YT

For those who had had to put up with having to wait out yet another week for the eventual final result of Cara Maria winning Vendettas, and those anticipating the premieres of both Champs vs. Stars III and Ex On The Beach in the same week, there was one thing on the minds of most everyone in mid-April. For those who are die-hard music fans like yours truly, those who just love just the pure spectacle of big events and those just obsessed with the celebrity life, there was one place you would rather want to be at for not one, but two weeks. And on a mid-April's weekend that had the NBA Playoffs, a country awards show, The Walking Dead finale and a high profile interview in relation to the biggest soap opera in this country, the Inland Empire in Southern California was the home to the spring's biggest happening... an event commonly known simply as Coachella.