JAYFORCE

Prior to SXSW Festival I’ve heard plenty of artists with concerns the festival was beginning to get too “commercialized” & loosing the essence of what it was originally intended to be. The homie Senor Kaos wrote a brief piece on his blog detailing his reservations about the direction in which SXSW has been moving in recent years .  On twitter during the festival I saw a number of younger independent artists upset about artists like 50 Cent, Jay-Z, Eminem, T.I., & Lil Wayne & more larger names performing down there. Personally I believe the established acts coming down to SXSW can be a positive as long as these artists aren’t hogging the shine from the new independents. If anything the the stages should cross pollinate the indies more with the established heavyweights as the headliners or anchors. I generally agree with most of what’s being said in the debate above, but it’s important that the indie artists who don’t have the immediate big bucks & huge marketing campaigns don’t get shut out over time.