Be mindful of what makes you mad, because that reaction will define you in ways that inaction can’t undo.
SXSW
used to be the pinnacle of music discovery. In its prime, the festival
drew over 35,000 guests to the streets of Austin, while this year parts
of 6th street were boarded and abandoned. Emptiness aside, SXSW isn’t dead, we are just old now;
with age comes a proclivity to spend time in areas that make space for
your interests. Those of us who first attended approximately a decade
ago are on the cusp or have since aged out of the festival’s targeted
demographic, while the remainder struggle to accept that urban really
isn’t welcome at SX anymore.
In 2014, there was an accident — in which a driver’s vehicular aggression led to four fatalities and left 20 people injured.
That incident triggered the festival’s hasty commercial pivot away from
hip-hop all together. As the SXSW’s commitment to black music waned, there was a 50% reduction in the booking of official hip-hop acts,
decreasing urban visibility overall, and leaving an annual pilgrimage
feeling type empty. What remained was an expectation that cultural
familiarity would continue to compel the aged crowd to keep coming. But when has love ever been enough to keep any relationship afloat?
2019 came full force with record low attendance rates. Being a socially
active brand begins and ends with a commitment to customer truth and
affinities. If you fail at that, your audience will fail you too.
A first-time for everything: I actually went to SXSW this year, spoke on a panel, and wound up featured in a Billboard article. It was weird, but cool, and I got to be really black out loud.
A Link Affair:
- Disney just completed their $71.3 billion dollar deal to acquire Fox, forming the greatest media monopoly seemingly overnight.
- Pharrell made a promise to God, and he’s keeping it.
- Tumblr is in the pits as traffic dropped by nearly 100M views the month after it banned porn.
- Cutting off Michael Jackson after ‘Leaving Neverland’.
- What are you willing to do for followers? Fundamental self-interest causes social media infrastructures to fall flat.
- The freelance designer that made the Nike ‘Swoosh’ tells her story behind the guise of creative.
- Kehlani flips the script on motherhood by releasing a maternity musical offering to take her mind off future labor pains.
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