Who can resist going to a few good rock and metal shows? It’s a popular happening, according to new findings from entertainment company Live Nation.
Live Nation, according to Forbes, is an “entertainment company, which engages in producing, marketing and selling live concerts for artists via global concert pipe.” The concerts portion of Live Nation’s business “involves in the promotion of live music events in owned or operated and in rented third-party venues,” Forbes adds. So, if anybody knows about concert trends, it’s Live Nation.
Rock and Metal Music in 2025
Now, Live Nation has released some information on their social media channels highlighting rock and metal’s dominance in the past year. In a post shared to Instagram, Live Nation shared a carousel of infographics about concerts in 2025, and one of the posts announced that ‘heavy rock shows” are up 14% in 2025. Another graphic stated that metal artists now own 13% of arenas and stadiums in the U.S.
“Heavy rock and metal are bigger than ever in live music,” the company stated in the post. “The pit is getting louder – with new acts breaking out and iconic bands dominating – all driven by fans like you showing up and turning out for your fav acts.”
So, which bands are at the forefront of this trend pointing to heavy music dominating the live concert space? On the post, Live Nation mentioned some bands that are drawing younger audiences into the rock and metal world, including Bring Me the Horizon, Bad Omens, Pierce the Veil, Sleep Token, Ghost, Turnstile and Falling in Reverse. They also gave a shout out to legacy acts such as Korn, Deftones, Linkin Park, System of a Down and Metallica for attracting thousands to their arena and stadium concerts.
The post also pays tribute to Ozzy Osbourne, who passed away on July 22 at the age of 76. “This genre wouldn’t exist without the legends. Ozzy Osbourne — The Prince of Darkness — didn’t just front Black Sabbath, he changed music forever,” they stated on the last slide. “His legacy will live on in every riff,” they wrote in the final slide, which featured an image of the iconic vocalist.”
EDM is Popular at Music Festivals
While rock and metal are hot, EDM is a genre of music that’s also doing very well this year. According to a study from Booking Agent Info, as reported on by EDM.com, electronic dance music has surpassed rock as the dominant genre of music at America’s premier music festivals.
Booking Agent Info came to this conclusion using data and information from artists who were booked on the lineups of major music festivals across the United States, including Coachella, Lollapalooza, Bonnaroo, Austin City Limits, Outside Lands, Governors Ball and Summerfest from 2015 to 2025. The study added that the research “measures programming trends—not artist performance, attendance or ticket sales.”
According to EDM.com, “The study says electronic acts claimed 192 unique artists and 220 performances in 2025, marking the first time the genre has surpassed rock in major festival programming.” EDM.com adds that “the genre’s resurgence began in earnest in 2022 with 205 performances by 169 unique artists, climbing steadily to reach historic highs by 2025 with 227 performances and 199 unique artists, the most in the dataset’s 10-year span.”
This year, Lollapalooza, which kicks off on Thursday, July 31, features a range of acts in the EDM genre, as well as hip-hop, pop and rock. There’s no metal this year, though.
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