South by Southwest, the 9-day technology, film, and music conference in Austin, Texas, got canceled in 2024.
Artists criticized the sponsors. Locals groaned about the tech sector’s power and influence. The U.S. Army sponsored a yoga class.
Amid nonstop cultural criticism, the event was a sea of discourse. Which, has always been the goal since its 1987 inception. This time about A.I.-generated burgers, extending the lifespan of dogs, saving the world from climate change, what makes a “unicorn” boss, and poop.
At the intersection of science and art, things got weird. We were on the ground for 9 days, and this is what we learned.
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SXSW 2024: Highs
Music
I really enjoyed the performance of Japanese group Tokyo Syoki Syodo—their lead singer was an incredible performer and I left the show feeling like I’d just had a shot of espresso. At the same venue, I saw Belgian pop group Ada Oda, whose fun, free-spirited take on indie pop totally captured the crowd and really had me excited about the future of the group. Similarly, La Sécurité, an art-punk band from Montreal, had me bopping and bouncing their entire set, thanks in large part to their use of wall-of-sound instrumentation and the group’s incredible drummer. To close, I’ll give a quick shoutout to Telehealth and Folk Bitch Trio for their fantastic shows—and the inimitable Tierra Whack for sending the festival out with a bang. —Braden Bjella
We don’t need to be afraid of A.I.
I entered the festival feeling like I would be terrified about the future of artificial intelligence. I left not really feeling that concerned about it. Upon chatting with people at the festival and attending several panels, it seems that there’s a growing understanding that, whether the tech companies want to admit it or not, there’s just some things that artificial intelligence currently cannot handle and won’t be able to manage for some time. For example, much has been made of A.I.’s tendency to hallucinate, but unless companies are able to develop an A.I. with the full intelligence of a human being (which, to be clear, is still a distant dream), that’s going to be a bug that will need to be taken into account with all work involving A.I.. Instead of replacement, companies are now pushing A.I. integration to help rid the workplace of menial tasks. There are, of course, issues with this idea that I’ll get to later, but for now, I left feeling like A.I. is not wholly the revolutionary thing that many are making it out to be—whether companies will accept that or not is a different story. —B.B.
Tech companies are aware of, and afraid of, their workers
Following the “Great Resignation” and the countless articles about “quiet quitting,” companies went on full PR pushes to try to get people to be enthusiastic about their jobs. Sometimes, this took the ludicrous form of simply calling workers who wanted job flexibility “lazy”; other times, jobs actually listened to workers’ needs and tried to make their roles more appealing to younger people entering the workforce. Attending panels this week, it seems that the latter approach is winning. Companies seemed genuinely concerned about how they will attract and keep talent, especially given the numerous benefits of job-hopping that we’ve covered at the Daily Dot. Furthermore, there was much talk, lip-service or otherwise, about making those at work feel comfortable and finding ways to ensure that they can perform their work to the best of their ability. This is a baby step, to be sure, but it was a positive development that I was excited to see. —B.B.
The Black Keys play nice
One big band always makes it a SXSW year. Usually on the eve of a new record. Sure enough, Akron, Ohio rock stars the Black Keys flew down to deliver a keynote address, premiere a documentary about their long road back from near self-destruction, and of course play some big music in an intimate space to build buzz. The duo also took over SXSW centerpiece club the Mohawk with intention on Thursday, and used the shindig to admirably uplift a suite of Black blues artists as their main support like Robert Finley and Jimmy “Duck” Holmes. The line between ally and thief when it comes to rock music is so fine. Their work on the right side of it was enough to make me a fan of a band I’d previously thought was inessential and opportunistic. —Ramon Ramirez
Quirked-up white boys take over
It’s no surprise that quirked-up white boys happened to be everywhere following the re-release of Talking Heads’ much-applauded concert film Stop Making Sense. Austin electro-rock locals Font is fronted by a loose canon singer whose presence ranges from writhing around to shouting through his T-shirt pulled up over his head. Instrument-switching art-rockers Godcaster also struck a controversial performance. Arms up over his head like a Michaelangelo painting in a crop top, the lead of the New York-based band shuffled offstage to make intense eye contact with wary viewers. Their otherwise quiet keyboardist also took to the mic for their final song, wriggling about without moving from his square foot of the stage. This off-kilter kind of performance, especially if the audience isn’t egging it on, has a dash of pretentiousness, but it’s a more entertaining form than those who disregard their audience with faux nonchalance. Maybe quirked-up white boys have always ruled the world, or maybe—just maybe—we’re living in the David Byrne-aissance. —Laiken Neumann
Bosses are in
There was a panel about what makes a unicorn boss that honestly I thought would be ridiculous and self-important. But turns out the answer is to be kind, helpful, and reasonably disruptive. At SXSW, people high enough on the corporate ladder to expense a flight to Austin seemed more humble and self-aware than ever. The glassy-eyed opulence of business leaders who champion dumb products was thankfully missing in every one-off conversation I partook in. —R.R.
Celebs vibed
Travis Kelce’s movie was good. Stanley announced a new cup. Sydney Sweeney talked about her problematic DMs. Elon Musk had someone make him a sandwich as he spoke about aliens and fired people. Selena Gomez gamified mental health with an app. The Cowboys royals announced a Last Dance-style Netflix doc. —R.R.
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SXSW 2024: Lows
The environment
Technology and the environment existed in two separate worlds at SXSW. For example, I went to a panel about the future of car technology. During the panel, one of the guests brought up the very real issues surrounding the cobalt mining needed to produce an electric vehicle, then proceeded to sing the praises of a new company that was developing batteries that do not need this cobalt. This is a positive development, but it was curious to me that it was mentioned at all, given that a significant portion of the rest of the panel was talking about the benefits of using A.I. in cars. Artificial Intelligence requires an incredible amount of electricity, with some estimates claiming that a single day of operation at OpenAI uses about 17 thousand times the amount of electricity as a typical American home. Sure, many companies brag about their eco-friendly initiatives, but without recognizing how these initiatives compete with, and in effect negate, their other developments, it comes off as little more than greenwashing. —B.B.
Over-reliance on A.I.
Remember how I said I wasn’t afraid of A.I.? That comes from a purely technological perspective. From a practical perspective, many companies appeared to be fully ready to integrate A.I. into their work, even if it does not currently make sense to do so. Like I said before, A.I. has a tendency to hallucinate information, which, while that may not be an issue if someone is simply having fun with an LLM, could have dramatic implications in fields like healthcare and journalism. Everything produced by an A.I. at the current moment must be meticulously fact-checked, which begs the question of whether using it at all is worth it. I worry, I would argue justifiably, that companies will begin to integrate this technology without performing these required checks—making for a worse world and poisoning the well of all future content. —B.B.
SXSW “official” is dead
If “Keep Austin Weird” means anything to you, you know that the city’s residents have been railing against its massive growth in recent years. The corporatization of Austin has long hit its biggest event, which was founded in 1987 as a relatively small music festival—but this year took an extra beating with one of its super-sponsors, the U.S. Army. Over 80 musical artists dropped out of official showcases to protest the U.S. Army and its ties to the Israeli military, as well as featured festival programming from Raytheon (now RTX) subsidiary Collins Aerospace and BAE Systems. Several organizations held protests throughout the week, including a lineup at Austin City Hall of several artists who dropped out of official events. If previous rallies against little-to-no pay for musicians weren’t the final nails in the coffin, this definitely could be. In terms of music, this year especially, the unofficial showcases are the most fun anyway. —L.N.
Tragedy on Red River
Cody Shelton, a 26-year-old chef from the Dallas area was killed in a hit-and-run late-night crossing the street downtown. The area is popular for SXSW nightlife. This 10 years after another awful SXSW hit-and-run left 2 dead. The pointless nature of the preventable tragedy is enough to make us all want to go home. Especially when that could have been anyone and it happened to a promising young man who was just enjoying himself out and about. —R.R.
The future of SXSW
This year, SXSW took on both the U.S. Army and the C.I.A. as sponsors. This was a breaking point for lots of musical guests, who have long complained about their lack of pay as well as the dwindling need for artist showcases given the rise of internet promotion. Additionally, given the ongoing crisis in Gaza, many artists saw SXSW’s acceptance of these sponsorships as a move that tied their work to the U.S. Army and CIA—something of which they were understandably not a fan. Consequently, more than 80 artists pulled out, and several made statements before their sets about how this would be their last year at the festival. As many panelists of the week stressed, the personal is political, and unless SXSW fully internalizes that message, this could be the instigator of a downward spiral for the festival that could see many artists refusing to return. —B.B.
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