Much like American music, world music is not listened to the same way it was 25 years ago. The music now connects more deeply with today’s globalized listener This year, the South By Southwest Music Conference (SXSW) is showcasing and featuring music with a focus from the Spanish and Latin community. This collaboration of Spanish and Latin music is covering the sounds from Argentina, Uruguay, Chile, Colombia, and Spain.
This year SXSW featured an area designated to world music as well as a panel and opportunities for music partnerships to grow. Some of the opportunities for growth will be focused on the musician and others will be more business oriented. The musician opportunities featured a bootcamp that incorporates knowledge to successfully self release an album. Another aspect for creativity will be the Latin Meet Up that will comprise a range of business professionals, national delegates, and artist managers to build dialogue around ideas as well as improve ideas that can be pitched during an open mic session.
As a part of their Spanish and Latin showcase, the film festival showed a documentary about a Mexican music group. The rockumentary,”Gimmie The Power” is about the Mexican band Molotov and the political, social and financial context where the band was born and developed.
Key players of the Latino Urban movement talked about business models effectively set them on center stage and on panels. Latin artists discussed the cultural barriers they faced to bring their music to an international audience.
The flow of music and culture that will be filling SXSW as a result of this focus is not something to be missed as Spanish and Latin music continues to grow and change with its’ listening communities global awareness. The hand-picked talent form the US, Spain, Mexico, and Central/South America will fill you mind with travel thoughts before you can even digest one regions flowing music.
Photo Credit: sxsw.com
