As an estimated 200,000 fans took part in the five-day South by Southwest music festival in Austin, which wrapped up last weekend, the rest of the world was going crazy for a whole different kind of music- driven phenomenon.
In many social circles, the Rebecca Black juggernaut overshadowed SXSW — North America’s largest event of its kind. Even compared with the festival’s bigger acts — including Foo Fighters, Duran Duran and Kanye West — more people seemed to be obsessed with Black’s YouTube megahit “Friday” than the trendsetting, tastemaking event in central Texas.
They’re strange bedfellows, Black and SXSW. She’s the 13-year- old singer behind the year’s strangest viral video, an Auto-Tuned, stream-of-consciousness rant that lamely, if tunefully, takes us through her day of waking up, eating cereal, waiting for the bus and so on. (“Friday” has more than 43 million views.) SXSW is the 25- year-old festival that celebrates indie music via day parties and night showcases.
But they each carried a message worth remembering for fans of pop music: Upstarts make music great. Always have and always will.
While we were at South by Southwest, our schedule was fairly regimented. Each morning, we posted the previous day’s goods on Reverb, The Post’s music site, at . And then it was off to loft parties and backyard barbecues, and magazine- or blog- sponsored showcases.
Out of the loop
At night, bands played their official SXSW showcases, and somewhere in there we had to eat a couple of meals (typically from street vendors) and catch up with friends and colleagues — over Lone Star tallboys, typically.
It doesn’t leave a lot of time for non-music activities, but when I would check my e-mail or Twitter, I would often see the name Rebecca Black. She was big on YouTube, and everybody had a parody video. Was “Friday” an intentional or unintentional parody? Everybody had their questions. Finally it got to the point where I leaned over to a friend of mine during a loud set by buzz band No Joy and asked him, “Do you know who this Rebecca Black is?” He didn’t. I didn’t. I’m pretty sure No Joy didn’t. We were all in the dark in Austin.
As that was happening, people had “Friday” on repeat — for good and bad reasons. It’s been called the worst song ever, and the YouTube rants and parodies it has inspired are innumerable. The song is so inane that people wondered if it was a joke — an auto-tuned punch line poking fun at Katy Perry lyrics and Justin Bieber sensibilities.
But really it’s more simple than that. It’s a 13-year-old girl singing earnestly about her day. Yikes. It’s not the apocalypse of popular music, but it did get us thinking.
In an age when mostly vapid pop music rules the charts, we need creative outlets — let’s call them incubators — just like SXSW for what they give the world. Music festivals that specialize in indie bands — such as the UMS in Denver or CMJ in New York — are more essential than they’ve ever been. For every Rebecca Black, we need a Radiohead and a Death Cab for Cutie.
Of course, the fun pop stuff is a blast. We need that too. I couldn’t listen to “Friday” without thinking how great will be to hear to the remixes ironically played on dance floors everywhere.
Must-make music
But we need music with meaning, too — the artists playing with so much conviction that they’ve betrayed their mothers, their friends and all common sense and started a band. They did it because they believe in rock ‘n’ roll, because they believe in the power of shared creation. And that’s kind of awesome.
On our way to the Austin airport last Sunday, my colleague John Hendrickson and I stopped by an east-side Brazilian restaurant for one last SXSW show (and some cheesebread) before leaving Texas. An Austin band, the Eastern Sea, was playing, and it was the band’s 14th show of the week. And there was one more to come that evening, at a house party.
The Eastern Sea will never make FM radio playlists. But we need it more than the bands that will because, for the Eastern Sea, music is not a paycheck. The members were playing 15 shows in six days because it sounded fun — and because they wanted their music to get heard. And during that 14th show, a talky patio hushed up and listened, and a toddler got up from his seat and danced.
The musicians said that was one of their favorite shows — not because it was going to get them signed or make them money or help them go viral. But because they had a good time while making something meaningful. And it’s moments like that that make SXSW and the many festivals like it so necessary.
Ricardo Baca: 303-954-1394, rbaca@denverpost.com, @RVRB on Twitter
