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SXSW panel: ‘Creating a Music Town’
11 a.m. Saturday.
Panelists: Jared Bailey of AthFest, Bruce Burch of the University of Georgia, Ashley Capps of AC Entertainment Inc., Jocelyn Kane of San Francisco Entertainment Commission, Patrick May of Skyline Music
The gist: Building a music scene in a town can pay big benefits — when police, city officials, citizens, artists and media converge and work together to build a music scene, local economies can be revitalized, careers of local musicians can be advanced and downtown areas can be enlivened and bolstered. Although city governments can’t build local music scenes from scratch — that takes the presence of talented artists — they can encourage it by publicizing the scene, trying to provide for musicians and trying to encourage city policies that are friendly to a music scene, like reasonable sound ordinances.
Takeaways: One of the most fundamental necessities to create a music town is to publicize the issue and make regular citizens aware of the size, scope and impact — people knee-deep in the scene may not realize how invisible music and music issues can be to those outside the scene. Although the economic revitalization and mixed-use development that come about as a result of a thriving downtown culture can be positive, musicians and activists should be careful to make sure those developments don’t result in conflicts between businesses, residents and music venues. Activists need to stay focused on the needs of musicians — affordable housing and health care, for instance — and not just the PR. Forming music commissions, nonprofits and foundations can be helpful to encourage and shepherd a music town, but small groups and driven individuals can make a big difference on their own, and organizing large groups of people can be more trouble than it’s worth. Cities should avoid efforts to brand their city as being home to a specific genre — that can lead to pigeonholing that actually discourages some musicians and fans.
Quotes: “If you live in a community where people support the artists they like by going out and seeing artists, the artists will tell their managers, the managers will tell booking agents, fans will tell the media and word will get about your town’s music.” Ashley Capps.
“As people feel that energy and that community of music they start to look at your town as a place to live. We have people move from outside the city and great businesses starting that support the music community. There are a lot of ripples that can come from this activity and I think the key is telling that story and communicating with the community. It may be self-evident to you if you’re on the front lines how important the music scene is but to a lot of people it’s not.” Ashley Capps.
“We don’t have a music commission in Athens, Ga. I sometimes joke that we’re too indie of a town cause we can’t seem to get all of our musicians in one room, and when we do they complain the entire time. But while the Country Music Association did a lot for Nashville, they discouraged people for a long time by so intimately associating the city’s scene with country that other types of musicians didn’t want to go there.” Bruce Burch.
“If you can organize people and get a group effort going that’s great. It’s very hard to do, it’s like herding cats. But you can make big impacts as an individual or small groups, if you’ve got the vision and strength of will to do certain things.” Jared Bailey.
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