Every era gets its definitive music festival. The boomers had Woodstock. Gen X had Lollapalooza 1.0. Millennials and Gen-Zers have Coachella. Since its initial two-day event in 1999, the annual Indio celebration has transformed the festival business from the scrappier traveling road shows of the ’90s into today’s heavily sponsored destination weekends.
Even if you’ve never attended Coachella, the release of its lineup poster is a watercooler moment for music nerds to dissect the artists who have either reached headliner status, been relegated to the undercard, or reunited for a big bag of money. It also raises important questions like: What kind of dark magic do they use to decide who gets a larger font size? And — in the case of the recently released 2025 bill — what the hell does “Travis Scott designs the desert” mean? But it also made us wonder which Coachella lineup was the best (and worst). So we threw on our flower crowns and attempted to sort it all out, ranking each year’s headliners and undercards on a scale of ten.
2016
LCD Soundsystem probably set a world record for accelerating the breakup-to-reunion cycle when they hosted a series of farewell shows in 2011 before returning for a headlining slot at Coachella in 2016. You’re telling me Axl playing with Slash and Duff for the first time in 30 years carries the same weight as James Murphy playing with whoever else for the first time in five? Meanwhile, Major Lazer and Jack Ü were in the second-biggest font size on two different days. I don’t care how much people inexplicably loved Diplo in 2016, that’s too much Diplo.
The Headliners: 4.8
The Undercard: 7.1
TOTAL: 11.9
2001
The first Jane’s Addiction reunion in 1997? A big deal! Their second, in 2001, without founding bassist Eric Avery or a new album? A little weak, especially as the sole headliner for the bare-bones second Coachella. The fest makes things up only slightly thanks to a peak-backpack rap-era undercard.
The Headliners: 5.1
The Undercard: 7.9
TOTAL: 13
2007
It felt like Coachella stumbled when it booked three acts who had all headlined a previous Coachella. I’ll at least give them bonus points for booking a then-mostly-unknown Amy Winehouse, way down on the bottom row of the Friday bill.
The Headliners: 5.9
The Undercard: 7.2
TOTAL: 13.1
2023
Bad Bunny made history as the first Spanish-language artist to headline the festival’s main stage. But Frank Ocean was 2023’s real ace in the hole — until his subpar Weekend One performance and an injury that led him to pull out of Weekend Two and be replaced by … the newly reunited Blink-182. Jai Paul’s long-awaited debut live performance was a huge deal for nerds who’d been hoarding his leaked MP3s since 2013.
The Headliners: 6.9
The Undercard: 6.4
TOTAL: 13.3
2013
No shot at the Brits, but Coachella must have had a hard time filling out the bill in 2013 when Blur and the Stone Roses, never sensations in America, were given the unusual distinction of co-headlining a Friday night. Balanced out by a pleasantly surprising undercard that included Nick Cave; Vampire Weekend; and the Evens, the restrained rock duo of Ian MacKaye and his wife, Amy Farina.
The Headliners: 5.6
The Undercard: 7.9
TOTAL: 13.4
2022
When Coachella returned post-COVID, it finally made the shift from typical one-of-a-kind rock festival to toothless everything-to-everyone festival. (Don’t even get me started on shit-poster turned balladeer Joji being on the same line as Doja Cat and Lil Baby.) There were, however, plenty of great young bands on the undercard, including Turnstile, PUP, and Code Orange.
The Headliners: 6.4
The Undercard: 7.1
TOTAL: 13.5
2025
This year’s variation on a recurring viral meme about Coachella posters is that your age is 70 minus the number of names you recognize on the 2025 poster. (If the results of this game were binding, my 15-year-old son and I would swap bodies.) This lineup conjures some of that classic anything-can-happen Coachella energy — seeing the Go-Go’s and Three 6 Mafia and the cast of Yo Gabba Gabba! in one weekend sounds like some kind of psychedelic vision quest. But Gaga, Green Day, and Posty is about as uncool a trio of viable headliners under the age of 60 as you could dream up.
The Headliners: 5.1
The Undercard: 8.9
TOTAL: 14
2015
Drake was reaching his pinnacle in 2015 while his Toronto buddy the Weeknd was just a few months away from becoming a more logical headliner choice than Jack White. Credit to Goldenvoice for putting Ghostface Killah’s name in a bigger font than Action Bronson’s just before Ghost put his impersonator on notice.
The Headliners: 7.4
The Undercard: 7.8
TOTAL: 15.2
2003
New York and L.A.’s respective kings of rap/rock may have been a little too similar as headliners, but the undercard was rich with intergenerational indie cool, from Sonic Youth and Tortoise to the White Stripes and Interpol.
The Headliners: 7.4
The Undercard: 7.9
TOTAL: 15.3
2019
After a couple of years of monoculture superstars holding down Coachella’s headlining slots, 2019 couldn’t help but look like a weaker year, especially with the addition of Donald Glover. But this is a good example of a bill that appreciated in value between the announcement and the actual concert, thanks to Kacey Musgraves sweeping the Grammys for Golden Hour a few months earlier.
The Headliners: 6.8
The Undercard: 8.8
TOTAL: 15.6
1999
The very first lineup is a snapshot of a pre-Coachella world. Rage Against the Machine and Pavement hadn’t broken up yet; Modest Mouse and At the Drive-In were small-font bands; and Moby was in the middle of his weird, brief reign as a pop star. The lineup, heavy on dance music, was also ahead of rave culture’s eventual American takeover.
The Headliners: 8.0
The Undercard: 7.9
TOTAL: 15.9
2010
For years, old bands would play Coachella because they were on a reunion tour. By 2010, they were reuniting specifically for Coachella — Pavement, Faith No More, Public Image Ltd, and Sunny Day Real Estate were among the recently reactivated. Jay-Z, who’d triumphed over Brit-rock skeptics to become Glastonbury’s first hip-hop headliner in 2008, was a natural choice to become the first solo MC to headline. Putting four question marks after Thom Yorke’s name on the poster, apparently at Yorke’s behest, was an unfortunate choice that led to a lot of confusion about whether a band (Radiohead, perhaps?) would be making an unannounced appearance.
The Headliners: 8.4
The Undercard: 7.5
TOTAL: 15.9
2020
Because we’re ranking Coachella lineups and not the actual concerts, the one canceled fest during COVID-19 is fair game. Frank Ocean’s theoretical 2020 return to performing remains better in our heads than his eventual appearance in 2023, though a lot of the excitement was connected to the (incorrect) assumption that he was also releasing a new album.
The Headliners: 7.6
The Undercard: 8.4
TOTAL: 16
2012
The Black Keys have always felt like a placeholder band — on rock-radio playlists, in Grammy nominations, and at the first Coachella that expanded to two weekends. (Would they have ascended to that level if the White Stripes had stayed together? I know Jack White doesn’t think so.) Radiohead remains a perennial gold standard for festival bookings, though. And while Snoop Dogg by himself is a good time, it’s always an event when Dr. Dre leaves the studio to join him.
The Headliners: 8.3
The Undercard: 7.8
TOTAL: 16.1
2011
Kanye West played Coachella for the first time, while several other era-defining misfits (Odd Future, Skrillex, Lil B, and Titus Andronicus) were lurking in the small font. A well-balanced lineup.
The Headliners: 8.6
The Undercard: 7.7
TOTAL: 16.3
2002
Björk and Oasis make an ideal yin-yang for Coachella headliners. Every great festival lineup needs an eccentric art-pop groundbreaker and some loutish guys who write anthems. Including the Strokes just after Is This It and Queens of the Stone Age just before Songs of the Deaf meant Coachella was getting good at catching exciting young bands at the right moment.
The Headliners: 9.3
The Undercard: 7.1
TOTAL: 16.4
2009
The Killers may seem like a weak link between two older, more established co-headliners, but they’ve got enough songs for a great festival set, and they’d written all of them by 2009. Amy Winehouse canceled a few weeks ahead of the festival amid legal issues, but M.I.A. was a solid replacement, in her first performance since becoming a mother. The undercard included Henry Rollins (talking, not rocking), the Hold Steady (talking and rocking), and Patton & Rahzel (every conceivable sound the human voice can make).
The Headliners: 7.9
The Undercard: 8.6
TOTAL: 16.5
2024
An ideal Coachella lineup, with three first-time headliners arriving at new career pinnacles and an undercard of artists — Chappell Roan, Tyla, Victoria Monet, Sabrina Carpenter, and RAYE — beginning their own upward trajectories.
The Headliners: 9.1
The Undercard: 7.7
TOTAL: 16.8
2005
The 2005 bill felt like Coachella deliberately planning each day to have dramatically different vibes — Coldplay, Keane, and Snow Patrol serenading you with romantic Brit-rock on Saturday; Nine Inch Nails, New Order, and the Faint serving up brooding dance-rock on Sunday. This year also feels like the last time a distinctly avant-garde fringe, from Matmos to Fantomas to Wolf Eyes, had a seat at the table.
The Headliners: 8.8
The Undercard: 8.3
TOTAL: 17.1
2006
Coachella’s best undercard: Daft Punk, Sigur Ros, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs. Madonna scaling down her show to play the dance tent felt like a true indicator of how big the festival had become, while Gnarls Barkley booked a spot on the festival just before “Crazy” caught fire and memorably took the stage dressed as characters from The Wizard of Oz.
The Headliners: 7.4
The Undercard: 9.8
TOTAL: 17.2
2008
2008 was the only year since 2003 that Coachella briefly abandoned its familiar three-tiered poster look, but the huge mass of small-font names included a bevy of rising stars like Vampire Weekend, MGMT, the National, and Calvin Harris. On a hot streak after the Grammys, the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, and the Super Bowl halftime show, Prince was still waging his late-career campaign to remind everyone that he was the best to ever do it.
The Headliners: 8.4
The Undercard: 8.9
TOTAL: 17.3
2004
As the alpha and omega of sad British alternative bands, the Cure and Radiohead presided over the first Coachella that sold over 100,000 tickets. With the newly reunited Pixies and Kraftwerk returning after a dormant period, 2004 felt like the year the festival minted itself as a place influential bands could return to screaming, adoring crowds they didn’t necessarily enjoy in their heyday.
The Headliners: 9.4
The Undercard: 8.1
TOTAL: 17.5
2014
OutKast reunited for a festival run, making them one of Coachella’s most anticipated headliners ever, while the Replacements’ reunion gave fans one more fleeting opportunity to hear some classic songs live. 2014 was also the year that the smallest font on Coachella posters started to get so tiny that you really had to squint to realize great supporting acts like Superchunk were also going to be there.
The Headliners: 9.3
The Undercard: 8.7
TOTAL: 18
2018
An insanely strong lineup — Migos, Cardi B, Nile Rodgers, David Byrne. Not to mention Beyoncé, who somehow surpassed sky-high expectations by coming up with an entirely new show instead of reprising her Formation World Tour set. (“Beychella” is the only portmanteau of Coachella and an artist’s name that’s ever worked, but right now somebody somewhere is trying to make “Green Daychella” happen.)
The Headliners: 9.5
Undercard: 9.6
TOTAL: 19.1
2017
Coachella has never triangulated rock, pop, and rap with three artists that hold near-universal appeal outside their genres quite like it did in 2017. With headliners Radiohead, Lady Gaga, and Kendrick Lamar, and an undercard that included rising stars Travis Scott, Mitski, Kaytranada, King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard, and Thundercat, 2017 gets as close to the platonic ideal of a festival booking as possible.
The Headliners: 9.7
The Undercard: 9.5
TOTAL: 19.2
