The press release goes on to blame the detractors of the event for Willamette Week's decision to unload the conference, and says that, despite the feeling that they "never got away from the carpetbagger image with a lot of local groups," the organizers have begun to search for a new host city for the seven-year-old event. "It should have been in Seattle," our local community scoffs in unison. Don't fool yourselves. We don't want it.
Location is the least of North by Northwest's problems. In fact, I was working at Willamette Week when SXSW first approached the publication with its plans to create a Northwest version of the Austin, Texas-based conference. Forever in Seattle's shadow, it was hard not to become excited over the prospect that little Portland would host an industry event as high-profile as what NXNW promised to be. Originally, the festival was to feature bands from west of the Mississippi exclusively, but within two years the roster included artists from the South, East Coast, and abroad--though the focus did, in all fairness, remain on the Northwest.
First of all, that was 1994 (the first NXNW would come to fruition in 1995), and while Northwest bands like Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, and Everclear were already getting loads of national attention, record-company A&R reps (music scouts) were still of the mind that the Northwest was a fount of future revenue. Expense accounts were fat in those days, and flitting off to Portland for a long weekend to discover the latest potential cash cow was something of which major-label bean counters readily approved. Label scouts showed up in large numbers to the first NXNW conference, busting to take journalists and musicians alike out to fancy restaurants in order to get the inside track on which bands and scenes to pay attention to.
By virtue of the fact that Seattle is larger than Portland, and, frankly, has more bands, Seattleites have always groused that Seattle is clearly the logical home for NXNW. What everyone interested or involved fails to realize is that NXNW would suck the same in either city. Not since its first year has this festival been about the bands, despite much crowing to the contrary; essentially, it's an excuse for industry people to party while getting paid. Sure, much work goes on behind the scenes to get the thing off the ground. And, ostensibly, without the bands there would be no conference. But who really benefits from NXNW?
One might look to its parent conference, South by Southwest, for answers. In the beginning, SXSW hoped to celebrate Austin's local music while promoting it at the same time. And since the city boasts a rich cultural draw--a favorable climate, Tex-Mex heritage, barbecue, Southern hospitality, and a wealth of local talent--SXSW soon became one of two must- attend industry events. (The other, without a doubt, is the CMJ Music Marathon, held yearly in New York.)
But it wasn't long before SXSW began to lose focus. As the conference grew, more and more label scouts began showing up, thus securing their own cushy yet precarious positions within the labels. (Who wouldn't want a job that requires you to fly all over the country to see bands, stay in fancy hotels, and dine in the nation's finest restaurants?) Then certain media publications began to realize the newsworthiness of a festival featuring unsigned bands, and they began sending writers to cover it. It wasn't long after that, presumably, that the labels themselves realized a free press junket had fallen into their laps. Why bother flying a bunch of journalists and radio folk into their home cities to see their bands when those people are already flying en masse to SXSW? The labels began setting up showcases for their signed artists, securing media attention for all of their bands in one fell swoop. And in the end, what was once a great tool for discovering or getting the word out on unsigned bands became a great big festival of all-expenses-paid label showcases. (Sure, the labels represented are most commonly independents, but A&Rs tend to shy away from artists already affiliated with a label, mostly because things can get sticky when one contract requires buying out another.)
Last summer's Change Music Festival, organized by CMJ, is a prime example. Sub Pop, Man's Ruin, Up, Kill Rock Stars, Junk, K, and Pacifico all featured showcases, and the festival was largely ignored by A&R scouts for larger labels. Locally, it was easy to get excited about such a wealth of talent in one place, and $25 for three nights of entertainment was a deal, but it was just as easy to forget that behind it all loomed an industry conference, replete with panel discussions and a trade show. And though Change Music was designed to celebrate the North-west's music scene, several touring acts, including Weezer, Arling and Cameron, and Joseph Arthur, were re-routed by Change Music so that their dates in Seattle would fall during the festival. Man's Ruin, a label based in San Francisco, brought a showcase of its bands up to Seattle specifically for the event. While such opportunistic strategies ensure a bigger draw to the conference, they also detract from the idea that it is strictly a celebration of local music. (Despite CMJ's belief that Change Music was a success, due to recent firings and budget cuts, the Change Music Festival has been canceled.)
NXNW has always operated on the same myth--that it is an outlet for unsigned artists to get the exposure they seek. But if you take into consideration the downright laziness on the part of many of the attendees-- including A&R reps and jaded journalists--the likelihood of an unsigned artist procuring a contract, or even being paid more than passing attention, is pretty slim. Even from the get-go, unsigned artists must foot their transportation and lodging bills themselves. They receive a paltry sum for providing entertainment, most of which is ignored by all but the most diligent industry folk. NXNW also solicits submissions from thousands of artists to play the conference, for which a band must pay a fee to be heard, whether or not it is chosen to play in the end. And more often than not, unsigned bands that are accepted lose out on media exposure because journalists are spending a "party weekend" going to see their favorite bands all in one place, as opposed to doing the real work of discovering and giving exposure to unsigned talent.
Seattle would be far better off to ignore NXNW as a tool to garner more attention for its music scene and instead pay tribute by creating artist- focused events that benefit a burgeoning scene rather than feed off of it.
