The 2022 Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival was held recently over two weekends: April 15–17 and 22–24. Coachella couldn’t be held the previous two years due to the pandemic, but this year it became a symbol of large-scale performances resuming as COVID-19 levels out. It’s also an opportunity for festival goers to enjoy new performances from famous artists like Harry Styles, Billie Eilish and the Weeknd from anywhere in the world, as the major shows can be watched live on YouTube. Given all the attention the festival receives, artists also often capitalize on that interest by releasing new songs or albums before and after their performances.

And then there’s the artists who chose Coachella for the scene of their final performance. BROCKHAMPTON had already announced back in January that they would be disbanding after their final show at Coachella and canceling the remainder of their tour dates. As this was the last chance to see them on stage, the performance naturally attracted a lot of attention. And, of course, the whole thing was live streamed. BROCKHAMPTON are a self-described boy band and creative collective. At the center of the group is Kevin Abstract, who founded the group around 2014 and has been active throughout the band’s entire run. BROCKHAMPTON, however, is proudly made up of a unique team of more than 10 members, with vocalists, producers, graphic designers, photographers, web designers and managers exhibiting their talents not only in music but across various media fields. The makeup of the band is reminiscent of groups like A$AP Mob and Odd Future.

But unlike A$AP Mob or Odd Future, where many artists are only loosely connected to one another and have each found their own success in solo work or outside collaborations, BROCKHAMPTON has a much stronger group identity. The main factor that solidified their reputation was the SATURATION trilogy, a series of three mixtape-like albums that they released in waves throughout the latter half of 2017. A documentary filmed during production of the series shows almost every member sharing ideas and singing lyrics and melodies into the microphone. The result of trying out endless new combinations and formations was the most explosive outpouring of creativity that year. Even with how exceedingly wide the boundaries of hip hop extend, the band’s music still seems to explore the world outside the current standards of the genre.

Abstract once defined BROCKHAMPTON as “a boy band, not a rap collective.” In their song “BOOGIE,” they even call themselves the “best boy band since One Direction.” With all the prejudice that the boy band label carries, their use of the term seems to be tongue-in-cheek in part. But what’s more immediately noticeable is one of the more positive aspects associated with boy bands: belonging to a team, with the freedom to explore music without being tied down to any particular genre such as hip hop. They extend the definition of a boy band even further by embracing members of different races and with different gender identities as well as in the way they operate entirely independently, using only their own personal resources.

At the closing of their second and last performance at Coachella, BROCKHAMPTON announced that their final album would be released later in 2022.