Norah Jones played her new album in its entirety at this year's SXSW Music Fest.
AUSTIN, TEXAS -- One of the several dozen panel discussions at this year’s South by Southwest Music Conference was an infomercial for the latest addition to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum: a 22,500-square-foot library and archives, celebrating its grand opening the week of April 9.
The afternoon discussion focused less on the archive and its growing collection of resources than on the general need for a repository that reflects the social and cultural import of rock music.
“Something extraordinary happened in 1961, 2 and 3,” said Donovan. “Folk music got into bed with popular music, and it would never be the same again. … With this love affair between folk music and pop music came meaningful lyrics … and a real look at life itself through a popular song.” The library and archive document our popular culture, he said, which is “a reflection of life.”
Stein said the importance of both the hall of fame and its library/archive is implicit in the worldwide appeal of the music.
Springsteen at the Moody Theater in Austin, Texas, at SXSW.
“Rock ’n’ roll is a hybrid, and that’s why it has remained, first and foremost, the music of the world,” he said. “Everywhere, rock ’n’ roll is king, and it’s going to stay that way because it has the power to reinvent itself. And it has, many times over.”
In theory and spirit, the SXSW Music Conference is more about the future of the industry and its reinvention than it is about its past. Roughly 2,600 shows were scheduled from the evening of March 13 through the early morning hours of March 18. More than 16,000 people registered for the festival. The artist directory included more than 2,000 performers.
Those numbers don’t include bands performing at free or unofficial music showcases (like Kansas City’s own two-day MidCoast Takeover, which featured more than 30 bands) or the thousands of fans who showed up without official badges or wristbands to soak up the festival’s atmosphere.
On the rooftops and in the clubs and courtyards and crowded streets of Austin, all flavors of music were in bed with each other, siring various and sometimes spurious hybrids.
During his afternoon keynote address on March 15, which drew a full room of nearly 3,000, Bruce Springsteen acknowledged the explosion of bands and genres over the past several decades, rattling off the names of five dozen genres and subgenres: two-tone, acid rock, art rock, Christian metal, heavy metal, melodic metal, black metal, folk punk, folk rock, sad-core, Nintendo-core, noise-pop, samba rock, screamo, emo, rock against communism and so on. Later, he quoted the prophetic title of a song by Danny & the Juniors, “Rock and Roll Is Here to Stay,” a hit in 1958, when rock was in its infancy.
Yes it is, but so is change in the music industry, and those rapid changes are especially evident at this festival. Most evident: The universe is losing its center, and everyone is fighting for what’s left of it.
That night, Springsteen and the E Street Band performed at Moody Hall at Austin City Limits, a 2,800-seat arena. Free wristbands to the show were distributed via a lottery available only to festival registrants. His show featured several special guests: Eric Burdon, Jimmy Cliff and Alejandro Escovedo and younger bands the Low Anthem and Arcade Fire.
But even Springsteen was looking forward and not so much back. His set list included seven of the 11 tracks off “Wrecking Ball,” his 17th studio album, which he released on March 6.
His was one of several marquee and sold-out shows headlined by artists on major labels. Among the others: Jack White, Norah Jones and Fiona Apple, who all showcased material from new albums; Lionel Richie; DJ/producer Skrillex; and the Shins, Counting Crows and the Cult, who performed at the free shows at Auditorium Shores.
The festival started becoming a showcase for established stars and not the up-and-coming bands about the time that technology and the Internet changed music distribution and CD sales started to plummet. It has since grown in attendance and scope, and not necessarily for the better.
There’s a lot more waiting in lines. Even a $700 badge doesn’t guarantee admission into a show. The line into the Jack White show was more than a block long five hours before the scheduled start. Fans lined up for Norah Jones hours early, too. During White’s performance, a large crowd gathered outside to look and listen through open windows, bypassing a chance to see other, lesser-known bands elsewhere, the kinds of bands that are elemental to the festival itself and the industry in general.
At the “New Digs” discussion, Kaye mentioned the importance of those “second-level” bands as he talked about a collection of cassette tapes he’d been given that have since been donated to the archives. They are recordings of about 2,000 shows at CBGB, the legendary New York music club.
The tapes, he said, include “not only the most important people, but everybody: bands that played there maybe one night. … To me, sometimes, these kinds of second-level artists reveal more about the mood of the times than the superstars, who were fairly well covered.”
Other panelists talked about some of the material that will be stored and displayed at the archives, items like handwritten lyrics (Jimi Hendrix’s “Purple Haze”) and handwritten letters (one from Madonna).
George-Warren talked about her oral-history project, which will include audio and video recordings and transcripts of interviews of legends in music, people like Wanda Jackson, one of her recent subjects.
Kaye talked about the value of archiving. The “web-o-net,” as he called it, has made some of the standard functions of the library and research easy to do from home.
“To me, what’s really going to be central to the library concept is the archives,” he said, “a place for people to put their stuff, their collections, the actual physical objects that reveal who we are — letters, manuscripts, you name it. You never know what will tickle someone’s imagination.”
What wasn’t addressed in the “New Digs” discussion is what exactly there will be to archive as the Internet becomes the primary, if not sole, method of music promotion, communication and distribution over the next century.
Will the archive store emails? Will it showcase blogs and websites? Electronic versions of show posters? Someone’s Word document of lyrics? A songwriter’s favorite Spotify playlists?
The Web and YouTube have prompted a proliferation of videos and photographs from concerts. From your laptop in Kansas City you can read about a Bjork show in Reykjavik the day after it happened (or maybe as it’s happening). The website ateaseweb.com posts Radiohead set lists live as each show unfolds. What could possibly be the equivalent of that trove of music on those CBGB cassettes? The music world is larger and more universal than ever. There are more bands to see and more records to listen to than ever. Yet it is overexposed. There’s little mystery or mystique.
“The concept of a library is important not only for our generation and anyone doing research now,” Kaye said, “but think of 300 or 400 years from now, when all of the names pass into some strange history. Someone will find a piece of paper that will reveal what life was like at South by Southwest in 2012.”
Life at South by Southwest in 2012 was a panoramic slice of the music world in 2012: a harried, chaotic and vibrant scene filled with 2,000-plus bands vying for the attentions and money of an audience overwhelmed with choices, distractions and opportunities.
“U2 is the last band I’m going to know the names of all four members,” Springsteen said, acknowledging the vastness of the universe he works in. He was also lamenting the slow demise of the big-name bands, the extinction of the icons, like Elvis, the Stones, the Beatles, Dylan.
But life at SXSW in 2012 revealed something else — in the throng who waited in line to see Jack White and among the many thousands who entered the lottery for a ticket to Springsteen’s show: Even as the music world disperses into so many niches and sub-niches, genres and sub-genres, into a kingdom of so many fiefdoms, there remains a thirst for the marquee show and the rock-star personality, for the glory and mystique that filled the earliest chapters in the history of rock ’n’ roll.
| Timothy Finn, The Star
Interesting subject for discussion Tim.
Who knows what the future holds for rock and roll? Who could have foreseen all the advancements made technology-wise just since the 70's? I know I can remember thinking cassette tapes were pretty cool, able to put whole albums on a single cassette tape, not to mention being able to record songs I wanted to hear in any order I wanted. And then along came CD's!
Another angle is the music that used to be considered hard rock is now what you hear playing on the oldies station.
Rock and roll, much like technology, continues to evolve. Performers now have the ability to call up entire backing orchestras at the push of a button. A lot of music today is created entirely via electronics.
At the heart of it all, in my opinion, is the ability for a musical performance to transport the listener to a different realm almost. Some songs can make you sad, some songs can make you happy, some get you really pumped up while others have a soothing effect. I don't see any of that changing, at least that visceral connection between performer and audience when that link is forged.
There will always be the perfect 'summer song', much as there will always be driving songs etc. The technology behind it will change, in fact it must change. But the basics of song writing and playing rock and roll music will remain the same: putting a story to music in such a way that the listener makes the connection.
Posted by: onthemark | March 26, 2012 at 04:23 PM
I agree. The industry will ride the wave of technology. But the core, not matter how it is boxed and received, will not change. we need and want our Jaggers, Dylans Springsteens and other icons. The Hall should capture what we have heard and the recognize there is a future too.
Many issues with technology will create more forks in the road. Difficult and constant questions will continue.
Posted by: Larry Luper | March 26, 2012 at 04:31 PM
I would like to read a "DOs AND DONT DOs AT SWSX", maybe along with some friendly tips and advice. I have never been, but should make it there next year.
Should we just go or buy a wrist band? Where does one stay? camp? car?
Are things really spread out? does one need to drive around, or is there public transport?
Did you drive or fly? Is there good repository for what and who to see at SXSW based on the music we like? Is there a central advice center?
Posted by: just wondering | March 26, 2012 at 06:41 PM
Too deep a discussion for me this morning, but one thing I did take from TF's summary...am I right that registration (ie-wristband/badge?) is $700 for this event. SXSW is something I always wanted to do (more so during its infancy), but no way I would consider it at that kind of cost. Ouch. I could purchase a season pass to the Dump for less than that and see 20-30 of a similar and to me better variety of full-blown concerts over an entire spring/summer season for less than that.
The festive atmosphere would be cool, but I think most would be better served to just visit Austin during a typical spring/summer week and enjoy the city, the beautiful surrounding area (Zilker Park, etc.) and music without fighting for space with all the hipsters, posers and white guys w/ dreads that I'm sure show up en masse for that event.
Posted by: pellboy | March 27, 2012 at 08:11 AM
wristbands are cheaper than badges. but badges used to almost guarantee admission into shows. not any more. you can go down and have fun without a badge or wristband; there's a lot of free stuff. but for the big names and big shows, you need some kind of official admission.
Posted by: Tim Finn | March 27, 2012 at 08:28 AM
good article tim. OTM, excellent observations as well. definitely agree with Larry... we want our icons. but in the same breath will we ever again have them as we knew them? and will we recognize them as such at the time? perhaps those are some of the hard questions LL refers to.
Posted by: fiddler | March 27, 2012 at 11:47 AM
I enjoyed the festival this year. I don't like standing in lines, so I never did, but still had my mind blown with new music. I did not see any larger acts, though I did see the Little Willies, Punch Brothers, Chuck Mead, Chris Smither, and about 30 bands I had never heard of before the festival. In my opinion, that's the way to do SXSW. For me it's about music discovery. You can see the established acts when they come through town.
Posted by: Steve Revare | March 27, 2012 at 04:29 PM