SXSW Music: What Is Wrong With Us?
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I’ve just returned from a couple of days at SXSW. I’ve been going to this annual event for nearly 20 years, and it’s something that I always look forward to. I love music and have always believed that the SXSW Music Festival was something special when it came to giving emerging voices a place to be seen and heard. SXSW used to be the place to discover new voices in music. If you were an up-and-coming musician, this was the place you came to be discovered, signed or just heard. Artists drove all night in vans filled with bandmates, amps, drums, guitars and duffle bags. It was never glamorous, but it was the most exciting road trip of the year for hundreds and hundreds of hard-working, nonfamous musicians.
Boy, how things have changed over the years. SXSW, while still important, has become a big hypefest where big brands talk to themselves and compete to throw the coolest parties. It’s filled with tech and media companies, all there to eat BBQ, have private parties and try to act cooler than they actually are. If I’m honest, I have to say that it makes me sick.Now, I admit that I know I’m sounding like an old guy saying, “Well, I remember back in the day, SXSW used to be different and better.”
But it’s true. Today, it is absolutely different. And, it is absolutely not better.
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