Keeping Austin Weird, Creative Resistance Against Homogenization of the Music Scene (1992 to Present)

Abstract

This chapter examines old and new musical Austin against a tide of rapid gentrification. Exploring the factors that threatened the music sustainability of the city’s branding as the self-proclaimed Live Music Capital of the World, it demonstrates how the global expansion of SXSW Inc. has impacted on its musical sound and urban sociability. It suggests that musicians’ career vulnerability is a consequence of their locality, of living and making music in an urban economy heated by creative activity, population growth, and urban development. Examining the issues of race and gender in the music city, it highlights that Florida’s creative class theory is an abstracted theory aimed at damaging Weird Austin’s music city brand. The chapter concludes by noting that urbanization and an inadequate music infrastructure can potentially destroy Austin’s musical sense of place, and its once rich urban sociability.