SXSW- Saturday

On Saturday we went downtown about 4-ish. We parked at Whole Foods and walked to Butler Park and when we got there there were a lot of older R&B artists,that i never had heard of, doing covers of other songs. We knew that Snoop Dogg, or Snoop Lion whatever his name is this week, was supposed to be coming on sometime between 2:45-5 and apparently he hadnt come on yet when we got to the park. When he finally did come on he was with some other R&B guy and they did a song together, then he did one or two songs on his own. I realized that I dont actually understand why he's that big of an artist. It may have been because he wasnt actually doing a concert but he seemed to just be telling the crowd to say "Hell yeah" a lot. He didnt actually seem to do much. After that we went to P. Terry's to eat then headed back to the park to wait for Childish Gambino. Unlike for ACL shows there werent that many people there waiting for Gambino, which I thought was weird since it was free show. We got back about 6:00 and still got really close to the stage and had enough room to for all of us to sit in a circle to wait for the next group to start.  When the group started we stayed seated because there still werent enough people there for us to get trampled. During the show we realized they were pretty good so we stood up and listened for the rest. After that we waited for a hour for Gambino, He had a lot of lights going and a twitter feed projected on the back of the stage which was pretty hilarious. When he finally came on it was so fun. I had heard he wasnt that good live at ACL a few years back so i was excited when the first songs were so good. Also he can sing pretty well which I thought was cool so during the chorus and stuff like that he sang the parts himself. He ended up doing like 3 encores and the last one being a freestyle about Austin and SXSW. He also changed some lines in his songs to make it relate to SXSW which I thought was cool. In the end there were 20,000 people there, and i have never been that close to anyone in my life, but it was definitely worth it, since he did all of my favorite songs by him, even the old ones, such as Heartbeat, 3005, and Freaks and Geeks.

SXSW-Sunday& Friday

I liked SXSW this year quite a lot but i didnt get to go as much as i would have liked. I went down there on the first Sunday of spring break but not to see any concerts. I actually went to a "puppy hour" which is basically when Austin Pets Alive puts a bunch of really freaking adorable puppies in a room and you can just sit in there for hours and play with them. Obviously they were hoping that the dogs would end up getting adopted but my friends and I just played with them. On Friday a group of friends and I went to whole foods to see some of the bands there. We saw A Great Big World first and also got to meet them, then we saw Bad Things, which is Shaun White (the Olympic snow boarder)'s band. We also got to meet that band and take pictures with them after which was super cool. After that we went to Butler Park to get good spots for Foster the People. We sat through the other two bands who were pretty good but not good enough for me to remember their names. When Foster the People came on it was an awesome show right from the start. I didn't listen to them a lot before but enough to know most of the songs a little bit. My favorite song by them is Coming of Age and they played it towards the end of the show. The singer was really good and kept the show interesting.

Michael Jackson

Michael Jackson is one of those people that i feel like a lot of other people would say they really love him and he has made amazing music that has "affected their lives" in whatever way that music can affect peoples lives. For me I think his songs are awesome and he had real talent for song writing and performing but he hasn't affected my life. I know we have talked about this a lot before in class but when it comes to Michael Jackson, that football player that killed people, and other famous people who clearly break the law but just didn't technically get charged, i don't think they should be as loved as they are when they have done such terrible thing. I know you don't have to agree with what artist do in their personal lives to like their music, but i have a hard time saying Michael Jackson, and those other people, are some of the greats in their profession because they have hurt other people and been found not guilty.