The South by Southwest Music Conference and Festival: Flying South for Exposure

Sometimes I wish that I could have been alive to see some of the great performers at their peak: Earth, Wind & Fire, Parliament, Michael Jackson, or be able to have attended great concerts like Woodstock. Today, we have our favorite performers that we want to see, but aren’t even aware that one of the best places that new and exciting performers are being discovered are at music festivals. The music festival is still alive, even here in the South, were the music scene is still fertile with new talent. One main reasons that the musical festival still has life is the one that began in Austin, Texas in 1987: The South by Southwest Music Conference and Festival, or SXSW (SXSW History, 2013).

Using Austin’s character and background, it’s vicinity to the University of Texas’ campus and great reputation as a popular party town, the SXSW festival grew from 700 registrants in 1987 to over 16,000 registrants. It has also grown to include the worlds of Film and Interactive entertainment into its festivities. 

You see, though this massive opportunity is world-renowned, heavily sponsored and brings together some of the most talented and well-connected  industry professionals in the world, its beginnings are still a part of what it still represents today. SXSW was a way to reach out to the rest of the world, and bring them to Austin to do business (SXSW History, 2013). But it has also become a shining example of how to bring together fans, musicians, industry professionals, music, technology, film and even education. This collection all in one place. Is it cheap, no. But is it beneficial? Well ask John Mayer. After performing at the 2000 SXSW, he signed with the Aware record label. After releasing his album the next year, Mayer earned a grammy for the song “Your Body Is a Wonderland”…but hey, who knows, maybe he fought over whether or not he could “afford” to go? Artists must pay their own travel and lodging, they make only a little bit of money if they are not headliners and will receive a wristband. I guess we know what he decided to do for the opportunity.

Music Is Medicine

Many of us have probably never heard of Robert Gupta. Probably even fewer of you know the name Nathaniel Ayers. Truthfully, neither had I, until a chance meeting between a reporter and a brilliant musician may have made it possible for some of us to be reminded of the power that lies in our gifts as musicians, singers or creative people.

I like log on to a very special website I found some years ago called TED.com. On this site, offered free of charge, you can find recordings of some of the most influential, motivational and informational presentations that you will probably find anywhere else on the Internet. TED, which started as a conference that brought together experts and speakers from three different worlds (Technology, Entertainment and Design), has evolved into a global phenomenon that has millions of people attending the annual conferences held all over the world. The great thing about TED is that is has also turned into a free source of ideas, inspiration and motivation in the form of videos on just about any subject you can think of. The videos show presentations and speeches from some of the most influential, motivational and interesting people delivering speeches that are sure to leave you with…something! The other great thing is that these presentations are not like the ones we sat through in school or during those staff meetings that we all “had” to go to. These “TED talks” are, well, interesting.

Ok, let me get back to Robert Gupta. He is a violinist with the LA Philharmonic who often speaks about the healing powers of music. Mr. Gupta, has a very unique interest in this subject, you see. This native New Yorker graduated from college with a pre-med biology degree at the age of 17, graduated Yale with a master’s in music just two years later and has done research at Harvard studying Parkinson’s, spinal cord regeneration and the effects of pollution on the brain. Unique to say the least.

In this TED talk, Robert Gupta talks about when he had the opportunity to give a lesson to a brilliant, but troubled musician by the name of Nathanial Ayers. Many years ago, Gupta began, a reporter named Steve Lopez was walking along the streets of Los Angeles,California, when he heard beautiful music. This music, as he found out, could be traced to a homeless man named Nathaniel Ayers. Ayers, the brilliant musician that he was, was playing a violin that only had two strings. How good of a player do you have to be to stop someone who would otherwise not pay any attention to you at all? Especially with only two strings?

Nathaniel was a classically trained cellist whose career was cut short by his terrible bouts with paranoid schizophrenia. A paranoia that was so crippling, he dropped out of the famed Julliard School and in the span of 30 years, found himself living on the streets of Los Angeles. A chance meeting turned into a series of columns in the Times, a book written by Lopez and later a movie starring Jamie Foxx as Nathaniel Ayers and Robert Downey, Jr. as the writer called “The Soloist” in 2008.

The reason I love this short speech is because it touches on a few different aspects of my personal views about music. I believe that we are very fortunate people as “creatives.” We are able to take the things that mean most to us, or emotions, and funnel them through a medium that brings them to life. Something you can see, something you can hear and most definitely, something you can actually feel. Where a system of cruel, painful and even unnecessary treatments that failed him, Nathaniel was able to find some stability in life in the “escape” that music brought to him. So many years on the street brought Mr. Ayers to the brink of loosing it all. If this had been the case, and music was not the only link to humanity this musician had, then Mr. Lopez would probably never noticed, or given much notice to Nathaniel Ayers, as he continued to live his life as a homeless person.

I encourage you to take the time to listen to this young man. He speaks from a wisdom that is far beyond his years. 

Take Responsibility for your OWN Career

Let's face it. There is a lot of competition out there. Everyday, you turn on the radio (anybody still listening to the radio?) or log on to the Internet and hear at least one person who they believe is...well, not great. I mean come on, we all do it. No matter how much we want to say that we "Respect the musicians out there doing it" or "I support indie music," there is always that one song you hear and say: how in the WORLD did they get a deal? It's perfectly natural.

Now, this is not to say that it is okay to just be a "hater," because it's not. All that I am saying is that whenever you find yourself in a situation when you are saying that someone's music sucks, think about where you are and where you are hearing the song. Just give that a minute to sink in.

So what's the point, you say, Mr. Hungry Artist? The point is simple: don't be a hater. No, that's too simple and too overused. Let me say this: take Responsibility for your own career! If you do that, then you won't have time to be thinking about who stinks. Period. You'll be too busy honing your own craft to make sure that you don't stink.

There are several ways to gain success in the music business, and many of them are not smart. You could try and do what everyone else is doing or you could be a pioneer. You could do crappy, low quality YouTube videos, or put some thought into your music videos. You see the pattern?

Being in this business takes hard work and determination. Luck is something that you can't sit around waiting for or striving toward. Those people who are lucky to have that deal, or you think are lucky to be on the radio, they didn't set out looking for luck. They worked hard and were determined not to be stopped.

I don't love every song I hear on Pandora. I just think about where I am when I hear it. At least the song is on Pandora. I can skip it, but somebody else is out there listening to it. That's one more Pandora listener that this "sucky" artist has than I do at this moment.