Isn’t it funny how we always want what we can’t have?
The Global Citizen Festival, a charity concert that took place in Central Park last weekend was deemed a great success with a stellar line-up onstage, massive turnout and big numbers in terms of financial pledges. But it wasn’t all good news. Front man Dave Grohl shocked Foo Fighters fans by announcing the band would be going on hiatus for an unknown length of time. With everyone curious to find out more, their numbers have been up across the board ever since.
In the week following the Central Park performance, more than 200,000 Facebook users were talking about the band, and their number of new page likes jumped more than 200 percent in comparison to the week before. Both their Twitter follower count as well as mentions were up, the latter close to 120 percent. Counting almost 120,000 page views on Wikipedia, this constitutes a fifty percent increase from the week prior.
While there was some confusion as to whether Grohl was being serious about the band taking a break, this was confirmed a few days later on their Facebook page. According to the post, Grohl will be taking time out to focus on his upcoming documentary film Sound City, about the legendary LA recording studio where some of the biggest and best in Rock and Roll have laid down tracks, as well as an accompanying album.
Foo Fighters are not the only example of a band that are capitalizing on taking a break from the music world. Electronic dance trio Swedish House Mafia, currently on their final tour, are also seeing a boost in numbers. They gained more than 40,000 new Twitter followers in the last 3 weeks, compared to 18,000 in the three weeks before. Also, their Wikipedia page views jumped more than 150 percent with close to 500,000 views in that same time period. A similar spike can be spotted in most of their key social media metrics, from Facebook page likes to YouTube and Vevo video views.
Grohl leaves the future of Foo Fighters uncertain in the announcement, stating that he has no idea when they will play together again, but assuring followers this isn’t the end. “I can’t give up this band. And I never will. Because it’s not just a band to me. It’s my life. It’s my family. It’s my world.”
So for all fans out there, both the old and newly acquired - there is still hope that the Foo Fighters will return.
Photo Credit: Screen Grab Global Citizen Festival
Liv Buli is the resident data journalist for music analytics company Next Big Sound. Buli is a graduate of New York University’s Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute and her work has appeared in Newsweek Daily Beast, The New York Times Local East Village, Westchester Magazine and more.
