Bands pull out of SXSW over U.S. Army sponsorship, Gaza war
thehill.com
Multiple bands and musicians scheduled to perform at the South by Southwest (SXSW) festival are pulling out because of the U.S. Army’s “super sponsorship” of the event, and America’s ongoing support of Israel’s war on Hamas.
Greg Abbott defended SXSW. Austin is no longer weird.
That abbott tweet was the death knell of SxSW.
Yeah... because its patrons can't realize they're being herded like sheep on their own.
Don't blame the people, it's just what Americans do. We take beautiful grassroots movements and then corporatize them until they're gross disgusting husks of their former selves that somehow are completely antithetical to the values they once held. Its the american way. Most of the people who go to festivals like this are usually young and hip in the beginning but by the time they reach their corporate status like with Burning Man or South by Southwest it's almost exclusively attended by rich out of touch people with their parents money, people who attended in their youth and are trying to reclaim their glory days, and people too young to realize that this is just a brand deal ran by an MBA, squeezed for every penny it's worth.
I don’t care how “weird” Austin is, it’s still in the middle of Texas.
Yeah. It's a bastion in a terrible place. There's lots of them like Raleigh/Charlotte in NC, Birmingham/Huntsville in AL, etc. They can be as progressive as they want but when the state legislatures force fascist laws and try to curtail their freedoms there often isn't much they can do. Oh and the cities are still surrounded by the rest of the people from that state so it's not like they're entirely insulated.
Pretty familiar with the Raleigh one since that’s where I live. We recently moved further out to buy a house and it’s a world of difference just 30 minutes away from NCSU (where I work).
I don’t think NC is as bad as Texas … yet… but they seem to be trying real hard to play catch up.
It's absolutely not. Texans are delusional.
I mean, I'm not ever gonna defend Texas. They need to stop cutting their noses of to spite their faces before anyone does that. Thing is, that description is true of all 50 states. Even California. We actually have more Trump supporters in this state than anywhere else in the Union, they're just such a minority that they can't be fascist outside of their little tiny towns well inland from the coastal cities, and then there's Orange County.
My point is that though they make up little more than 30% of the population, they are everywhere, as soon as you step outside of the liberal cities.
Is there a city that could be considered leftist? San Francisco is definitely out of that category, as us San Diego.
Yeah, it's true everywhere. The rural areas tend to be very red and regressive. But my point was that the state legislature and therefore the majority of the population/districts makes a big difference. In a blue state you can still find pockets of red. But the state will largely be pushing progressive or at least moderate agendas. Whereas in a blue city in a red state the legislature is going to be trying to hurt and undermine the people constantly.
it's not that they are leftist or there are a bunch of republicans, it's that the state gov is not majority republican. So they can't pass anti-woke laws and target minorities.
Austin is absolutely not a bastion.
It's a crappy city just like most of them. They only care about others until it fucks with their money.
art and military go together like cat poop on the bottom of my doc martens.
Yeah, although the military pumps a ton of money into Hollywood movies. And it works. They love the fact that there are two hit Top Gun movies glorifying the Air Force.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military%E2%80%93entertainment_complex
Top Gun is the Navy.
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Also, to reply to the other person, I don't think there's anything inherently wrong with the military supporting a blockbuster about fighter pilots, or about the military generally, in a fictional story. Filmmakers know the deal, they can't shit on the military while getting it's help, but it's disclosed in the credits and almost always patently obvious. There are far more insidious films like Zero Dark Thirty or Argo, or even a show that I love, Band of Brothers, that are mostly propaganda about real events to rewrite history to hide America's flaws. That's what we need to worry about, not the military helping out with Top Gun or Transformers.
That's the important thing here.
As a former service member (w/ the majority of important adults in my life having served as well) it for sure fuckin works, you're 100% correct.
...did you join the military because of Goose
Nah, I joined because I had shit grades and no job.
Nah, because of duck duck.
“Kneecap joins other slated SXSW performers like Lambrini Girls, Scowl, Gel, Okay Shalom, Squirrel Flower and Sprints in pulling out of the event to protest.”
Wonder how many of them will lose their recording/publishing contracts and/or be blacklisted by the LiveNation/Goldenvoice/Ticketmaster oligopoly, effectively ending their careers.
Scowl and Gel are on hardcore labels so I doubt their label is going to be upset at the protest
Who does their distribution? Also, where do they play when they tour? A lot of US cities have no venues now controlled by LiveNation or similar.
A lot of it is independently produced and distributed. The labels the two bands I mentioned are on are small independent labels as well. Depending on where you live there are a decent amount of venues that aren’t run by a large corporation like live nation.
Has that happened since
DixieChicks? I haven't really paid attention.Most of them are not even really pulling out.
They're still performing during SxSW. They're just removing the label from their gigs.
Fuck Israel.
Those in power don't give a shit.
No one gives a shit, these are no body acts who are shooting themselves in the foot with this. I'm all for people putting their priorities over profits though so power to em, I suppose.
I care, but I'm in the gross minority.
The only time people care is when they tell me not to care.
Ya, the rounding error of people who care about this are inconsequential. It's the headlines trying to drum up conflict that are more of the problem. This is less than a nothing burger.
SXSW has always been consumerist garbage.
They will no longer be complicit in Genocide.
one band?