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Geldof keynote delivers
Bob Geldof put his notes on the podium at Thursday’s SXSW music keynote speech at the Austin Convention Center, then never looked at them. The Dublin-born musician-activist knew exactly what he wanted to say, which was, basically, that America invented rock n’ roll in dire times and it was up to us to keep it alive through music that had meaning and context.
Geldof’s talk was a call for a musical revolution amid a vapid pop marketplace. ” Where are our Ramones and our Sex Pistols?” he posed. “Do we need them? Yes. Will they be found? Maybe not.”
Geldof proved to be the most articulate and pointed keynote speaker ever at SXSW, tracing the work of Austin-born Alan Lomax to rock’s ‘racket of democracy.’ The standing ovation he received when he wrapped up, exactly at the hour mark, was genuine.
But first came some self-deprecating humor. “I know what you’re thinking,” he said, with his hair in a freshly shampooed moptop. “(Expletive) me, it’s Justin Bieber.”
Geldof said that SXSW was different from other festivals such as Coachella and Glastonbury because “it celebrates simply being musician or a fan or a follower.” On this St. Patrick’s Day, he then quoted another Irishman, writer George Barnard Shaw, who said “All change comes from the power of unreasonable people.”
His disdain for bloggers was deep, as he related a trip to Africa he took with President George W. Bush and most of the press corps spent their time blogging and not out in the field where the real story is.
He quoted that overdone Marlon Brando line from “The Wild One” where someone asks Brando what he’s rebelling against and Brando replies “Whaddaya got?”
“That’s’s rock and roll,” Geldof said.” Bloggers don’t have it. They need to realize that individuals are not that important.” He talked of the need for music to create a dialogue, as it did from the times of bluesmen to the Rolling Stones to the Sex Pistols. “You can talk these things through, which is the limit of the web.”
He also blasted “the Glee Clubification’ of my music” and added “I want it back…The state of pop music reflects society at the moment.”
Scoffing at most of the new “continental navel gazing” music that has been recommended to him, Geldof threw out a challenge to the packed ballroom, as well as SXSW’s home country: “I don’t want you to be tired anymore. We need you. Will you find that essential noise?”
Then he paused and said “probably not.”
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Permalink | Comments (4) | Categories: SXSW 2011
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By Hmm
March 17, 2011 8:03 PM | Link to this
Can we all chip in to buy him a haircut at Birds?
By sarum12
March 17, 2011 8:59 PM | Link to this
That Bob Geldof will win first place if he ever enters a “Bill Clinton on a bad hair day” contest.
By Mike Murphy
March 17, 2011 9:50 PM | Link to this
That’s not Bob Geldof, you pinheads.
By Hans
March 18, 2011 11:57 AM | Link to this
That is indeed Bob Geldof. He even joked when he came in that Justin Bieber had stolen his hair style.