A SXSW Music 2015 Postmortem Report
This will be remembered as the year the SXSW genie got shoved, kicking and screaming, halfway back in the bottle.
This is the follow-up to March 10th’s The State Of SXSW Music 2015 on Cuepoint/Medium.
The Pruning
SXSW 2015 will be remembered as the year the genie got shoved, kicking and screaming, halfway back in the bottle. It was still too sprawling, too unfocused, too potentially hazardous to deem “smaller and more manageable,” but it sure felt less dramatic and noticeably lower-key than recent years. Some have called it a “return to form” and a “course correction.” And for a charitable few with short memories, “the best SXSW ever!”
How much more low-key was SXSW Music 2015?
- Enough that it must’ve appeared to Kanye West like some place that couldn’t deliver the attention he desires.
- Enough that you could easily dine downtown in parties of six without reservations.
- Enough that one major downtown hotel had a 45% occupancy rate for Saturday night.
- Enough that prime parking lots dropped their rates from $40 to $15 by Saturday night.
- And most importantly, enough that badge and wristbands clearly delivered more value and shorter lines than perhaps in a decade or more. Headliner-level bands and major industry types may have honored their promises to sit this one out, but this was the year that at venue after venue, showcase after showcase, people queued up, and in the end, everybody got in. Sift through #sxlines hashtag and its hard to find a horror story that wasn’t a private party or corporate activation.
Sure, Mother Nature gets an assist. As does the bitter (and deadly) still-lingering aftertaste of SXSW 2014. But it’s impossible to believe that fewer permits, a more perceptible police presence and stepped-up code enforcement during SXSW interactive didn’t play a large part in the pruning.
If SXSW got dialed back some, it’s because almost everybody — bands, clubs, sponsors, the city, fans and, yes, SXSW Inc. — tweaked their approaches at the same time. Spring breakers still run roughshod over Dirty Sixth. And Sixth east of I-35, with is narrow sidewalks and lack of street closures, felt more like a 72-hour game of Frogger than ever before. But even if SXSW 2015 felt too chaotic to trigger a true SXSW 2.0, it’s obviously given the folks capable of making changes a blueprint for what’s next. What they do with it will be the story of SXSW 2016 and beyond.
Sponsors and Parties
No surprise, the festival’s longest lines, sources of police attention/action, and biggest social media drivers were the parties and sponsor activations — both officially and unofficially SXSW-sanctioned. The city got ahead of it four ways — by reducing the number of permits, approving acts (i.e. you couldn’t stage a Kanye show in a parking lot), staggering cut-off times for outdoor permitted events, and clearing out or shutting down venues during Interactive. During the festival — for both parties and popular official showcases — the city also insisted venues like Stubb’s and the Mohawk opened doors early to cut down on lines.
At the same time, it seems like the brands driving many of what were prior SXSW’s biggest headaches/parties rethought their approaches. Some anecdotal evidence:
- Take Red Bull. Rather than throw a giant parking lot party, as they’ve done in the past, Red Bull went the micro route, fully financing and helping to find gigs and publicity for a trio of their Sound Select artists. Rather than cater to the same folks who RSVP for 500+ other parties, they were able to focus their considerable money/PR machine on something smaller and more manageable — something that would connect them to influencers not just partiers. Each of these acts played different parties around SXSW (Hype Hotel, Culture Collide events, Flood Fest, etc), and RedBull’s PR team worked to get people to these other parties, rather than their own.
- Samsung, famous for spending on Jay-Z/Kanye in 2014, tightened their purse-strings considerably. Sure, they brought D’Angelo and Mary J Blige to interactive, but rather than put them in the Austin Music Hall, they used a 150-person “Supper Club” concept. And their three larger parties during music — Iggy Azalea, A$AP Rocky and Hot Chip — suggests either they refused to pay or the big name refused to play.
- On that note, this was the year fewer parties ponied up for exclusivity. Big Sean. Spoon. ODESZA. Run The Jewels. Courtney Barnett. They seemed to be everywhere. Nonetheless, that neither seemed to dull attendance for those shows or cut into those act’s cred — they got to take the money AND satisfy fans who wanted to see them. As for the handful of exclusives, safe to say nobody left SXSW talking about AXE and John Legend.
- Take Saturday’s Fun Fun Fun Fest lineup at The Mohawk. Part of the House Of Vans series, it succeeded not because they went big on talent, but because the day’s featured brand (Fun Fun Fun) is a brand that’s wholly made music its brand. This is clearly the kind of party SXSW needs more of.
- Verizon’s “Austinites Unite” campaign was geared not towards attendees, but locals — offering them free rides, delivering them coffee and during interactive, a free day of Franklin BBQ. They essentially counterprogrammed against every other brand that catered to the flocks coming for SXSW, not to the folks who’ll still be here when the last flights leave.
- And finally, Fader. They went the business as usual route, presented 50+ acts — from Passion Pit to a surprise Miley Cyrus guest appearance — and again dominated SXSW-related social media. They seemed to do everything right and very little differently than previous years — aside from taking a very responsible pre-festival step to not offer a giant anyone-can-RSVP form. And while it was still completely free to attend, Saturday night and Sunday, folks took to social media to complain a rumored Kanye West appearance didn’t happen — an appearance Fader never promoted or promised. (It was also unlikely from the start that Kanye’s Adidas deal would allow to play a Converse-sponsored party) Sunday, Fader publisher Andy Cohn took to Twitter to say “If you can complain about Kanye West not showing up after seeing 50 amazing artists over 5 days, you are a PATHETIC MISERABLE HUMAN.” It’s hard to believe other brands aren’t looking at the post-Fader fallout and wondering if it’s all worth it.
Programming
SXSW: Hip-Hop. Film. Interactive.
That’s what it’s come to.
SXSW has a programming problem. Once upon a time, Austin hip-hop insiders Matt Sonzala and Tee Double worked tirelessly for SXSW trying to convince hip-hop acts that there was an audience at SXSW for anything but alt.country and indie rock. Even just a few years ago, singer/songwriter Matt Nathanson looked at the streets of SXSW and called it “a Mumford & Sons convention.” Now, the pendulum has swung wide the other way. Perhaps because MCs are cheaper to move around than full bands, or perhaps because hip-hop acts still see value in the hustle (free/low-paying gigs for “promotion” are the norm year-round), SXSW’s biggest names and biggest showcases are now hip-hop oriented. The way major summer festivals are leaning into EDM, SXSW has leaned into hip-hop. It’s not a “problem” because it’s hip-hop, but a problem because so much of the programming seems to swing in one genre-specific direction. It could be that SXSW is simply reflecting our times — hip-hop and country are what sells. And despite heavy pre-festival chatter Garth Brooks was heading our way this year, SXSW has never made a concerted effort to draw in popular radio-friendly country acts.
Assuming SXSW still needs big names — to drive badge/wristband sales and to bring in the upper-echelon industry types that only come when their moneymaking artists appear at the festival — the question becomes whether non-hip-hop SXSW acts begin to feel left out/left behind. Already, take the sponsor-paid acts out of the picture and SXSW is having a hard time getting major acts to believe it’s worth playing for petty cash or badge/wristband paydays. Again, imagine any other year where acts the caliber of Alabama Shakes, Death Cab For Cutie, Modest Mouse, Mumford & Sons or My Morning Jacket all have recent/forthcoming albums to promote and instead opt out altogether. Interestingly, not only was Kayne a no-show, but also the two biggest things in hip-hop, Kendrick Lamar and Drake.
Also interesting: at most of the major hip-hop showcases, the cash line seemed to outnumber the badge/wristband lines. Is SXSW programming something its core audience — badges and wristbands — aren’t interested in?
And then there’s this piece of seriously uncomfortable business: SXSW’s programming emphasis on hip-hop is clearly a catalyst for the non-SXSW-going spring break crowd. As I mentioned in the preview piece, while none of the kids here for spring break have a snowball’s chance of seeing much of anything, Austin is going to be their chosen destination for spring break because this is where Kanye, Jay-Z etc have been. The headliner-level talent still coming to SXSW — from Miley to J. Cole — are exactly the kind of mass-appeal acts that fuel spring break revelry. And make no mistake, it’s not a race issue, it’s a mob mentality issue — what makes Dirty Sixth feel dangerous are throngs of people drawn here purely to party.
A House Divided
Of the reactions and comments to my State Of SXSW Music 2015 piece, the one that resonated the strongest — and then colored my vision the most — came from Austin’s Ron Deutsch. “SXSW is going through a generational change,” he wrote on Facebook. “SXSW was a Gen X festival, but it is now becoming a Millennial festival.”
When you look at is this way, a lot of the SXSW-jumped-the-shark handwringing starts to make sense: the festival simply isn’t built for the audience that fondly remembers the relative peace, quiet and musical discovery of SXSW 1997. Or SXSW 2003. The festival is now old enough that there’s two distinct SXSW camps — those that were here when it was smaller and more manageable and those that don’t know any different. Millennials, Deutsch argued, are used to relentless marketing from big brands. Not even McDonald’s offends them. They not only don’t care whether Madonna or Bono didn’t keynote, they’re not interested in a keynote at all — they weren’t here when the “conference” part of SXSW ruled the daytime schedule instead of day parties. Gen X is offended by big names taking showcase slots from young unsigned talent. Millennials are used to stacked Coachella and Lollapalooza lineups — they want to see those names here. And oddly, considering its Gen X that says they yearn for the days of SXSW discovery, millennials are used to seeking out the upstarts and the underdogs on streaming services and social media. They want to see both big pop acts and the underground-leaning acts that might never develop into a big pop act. You can pretty easily argue they have more eclectic tastes than the SXSW traditionalists.
When you get down to it, the people most offended by SXSW 2014 — the ones who sat out 2015 — likely weren’t 20-somethings but folks in their late-30s, 40s and 50s who could compare and contrast with the SXSWs of old.
Deutsch’s conclusion- — “If SXSW is to continue, it will no longer be defined by Gen X interests and values, but the ‘new’ young people, for better or worse” — is the story of SXSW 2015. SXSW is a house divided. There’s not a lot of crossover between Fetty Wap and Alejandro Escovdeo or Dej Loaf and Drivin N’ Cryin. A handful of events, like Willie Nelson’s Heartbreaker Banquet, seemed to appeal to both camps, but I’m guessing there’s not a lot of folks that can say they went to both the Austin Music Awards and the mtvU Woodies. And the Music Awards packed out a giant Convention Center hall all night — not because the lineup was stellar, but because at this point it’s counterprogramming SXSW. It’s where Austinites who remember the Armadillo seek refuge from showcases featuring very little they’ve heard of. SXSW needs the awards — or an event like this year’s Doug Sahm tribute — because great festivals nod to their roots as much as they do the future, but it’s obvious these events aren’t in line with the prevailing SXSW Zeitgeist. Almost nobody seemed to notice Neil Young was here with a film or that Little Steven stepped in as unannounced guest at the Awards. Even the highly-anticipated Kurt Cobain documentary that SXSW Film showed during SXSW Music seemed to get lost in the shuffle. That might be because the media covering the festival has changed too — they’re Millennials looking for stories that yield page views, not for acts that appeal to music fans that still have Trouser Press Guides on their bookshelves. Not long from now, these Millennials will be the only ones telling SXSW’s story. And the story will be about them.
Safety
Overall, conventional wisdom suggests SXSW felt smaller and a few shades less dangerous. Then again, we’re not cops on Sixth Street. But even on Sixth, there seemed to be less tension. One theory, is that when Sixth is as crowded as it is during SXSW, people loitering on Sixth in the street are a few shades less drunk because it’s harder to go to a succession of bars. Therefore, fewer fights, fewer public intoxication issues.
The Austin American-Statesman credits a “quieter” SXSW to this: “Street closures and police presence in the downtown core were heightened with as many as 87 police cars being used to block off streets, several new enforcement teams, a group dedicated solely responding 911 calls in the area and a 120-officer-strong crowd control team.”
The biggest issue seemed to be pedestrian safety. And not just because it was on everybody’s mind after last year’s Red River tragedy. Cracking down on jaywalking seems silly on paper, but given the amount of near-miss cars vs. pedestrian accidents I witnessed, it makes sense in practice. Red River and Cesar Chavez had minimal police presence and a lot of near-misses. And as I mentioned, everything east of 35 on Sixth felt like a perilous mix of large crowds, small sidewalks and open streets.
Just as problematic: clubs where lines careened off the sidewalks and into the streets. For a club with a line, it’s a lot to patrol because there’s not just one line at most venues, but four: Cash; Badges; Wristband; Sponsor/VIP. And because a lot of venues have day parties and need to flip the house, opening late has become the norm. Worse still? Parties that want lines to give the illusion there’s more going on inside than there is. They’ll hold the lines even if the club isn’t at fire code capacity. And it’s not just clubs. Trailers and food courts across both sides of town also seemed to have lines stretching into the street at dinner time.
These aren’t easy things to control, particularly when SXSW utilizes so many venues. Clearly, some of those venues cede control to private party promoters or, during official showcase times, think lines are SXSW’s problems. My guess is that line maintenance and venue control are elements the city will message and enforce more heavily for SXSW 2016.
It Still Works
SXSW still works. It’s still the four-day ground zero for the music industry and people who love music. It provides indelible moments that are about music (the fan that sits in with Ghostface Killah at the Mohawk and absolutely owns his verse). It provides opportunities for young bands to play in front of major industry types that simply wouldn’t endure the hassle of seeing them at a New York or Los Angeles showcase at this point in their careers (Austin’s Walker Lukens). Big star, small room, one show, still works (J. Cole). And it’s still possible to cut through the noise and walk away with serious buzz or reinforce the buzz you came in with (Leon Bridges). And only at SXSW does Bill Murray watch your set and buy your vinyl from the stage afterwards (The Mastersons). Not for nothing, Bill Murray, by the way, is the great uniter of SXSW past and present, Gen X and the Millennial.
What’s Next?
The biggest question is whether a mellower SXSW simply means everyone that sat out comes back because they heard good things?
At what point does the Fear Of Missing Out send everyone back to SXSW to try again? And by everyone, I mean headliner-level acts, industry leaders and big sponsors with plans for big activations. Is the relative quiet of SXSW 2015 just an anomaly, an off-year?
Or, do brands take Red Bull’s cue and go even smaller? We’ve already seen it happen at SXSW Interactive — where major brands curate small dinners for select influencers rather than throw big parties for folks that may or may not be actual customers. And if your choices are pay for Kanye or pay the price on social media when Kanye doesn’t show up, what’s the point of having the party anyway?
Will major venues like Stubb’s or ACL Live — who already have input on what acts are placed in their venues — push back at SXSW programmers, insisting they supply talent that fills their venue for more than a few hours a night or threaten to walk away and program their own venues with non-official events?
Does Kimmel come back? In town, the week’s worth of shows seemed to generate far less chatter than they did in 2014. But it’s obviously a good look for the city. And god knows we have a lot of new hotel rooms that need filling the other 50 weeks of the year.
SXSW Sports seemed like SXSW’s biggest winner. Crowded panels. A clear programming focus. The chance to lure bigger and better athletes every year — stars that are actually bigger than rock stars. It’s got obvious room for growth in an uncrowded market. But how much SXSW is too much? Is SXSW Sports, the similarly promising SXSW Food and SXSW’s move towards “convergence” programming a sign SXSW may eventually be one big 10-day event without the clear delineations between music, interactive and film? Don’t they already bleed into each other anyway?
And more specifically for SXSW 2016, it’s a good guess the city will aggressively pursue more opportunities to trim SXSW back, particularly on the permitting front. If just a few moves spun the dial back this far, what would happen if they made permitting deadlines earlier and the expectations re: staffing, line maintenance and guest lists clear from the beginning?
Conventional wisdom suggests the relative peace and quiet of SXSW 2015 is just what SXSW needed. But just as surely, come January 2016, everything we talked about heading into this year’s festival will be up for debate again, almost as if SXSW 2015 never happened. That’s the nature of something with as many moving parts as SXSW. It’s not quite too big to fail, but plenty big enough to make everyone in its path shudder and second-guess themselves. For better or worse, the real answers — those that stand to decide the very fate of SXSW — are always another year away.
If you enjoyed reading this, please login and click “Recommend” below.
This will help to share the story with others.
Andy Langer lives in Austin, Texas. He is the music columnist for both Esquire and Texas Monthly. He’s also the afternoon host on Austin’s KGSR.
Follow Andy Langer on Twitter @Andylanger
Follow Cuepoint: Twitter | Facebook
