Tag: Awards/Honors

South By Southwest Comes to A Close

Posted by Kat – March 21, 2010

Austin, Texas was the home of one of the most important and influential music festivals in the United States this weekend, and South By South West was an amazing experience. Even though it was rainy, cold and windy on Saturday as it came to the end of the concert, the fans didn’t really seem to care. On Thursday, March 18th, the famous Motown legend himself Smokey Robinson had been there to deliver the keynote speech and start the festival right. The crowd seemed to be a little restless the first night but as the Conference went on, the crowd and the performers only got more and more enthused.

Over the conference, several different performers were there to really bring some amazing talent and enjoyment to the concert. It was really the second day of the confererence where the fans were given the real performances, and you could see the lights go from red to green on Friday. Sadly, Alex Chilton, famous guitarist of Big Star, had passed away on Wednesday, so there were touching remembrances throughout the performance, and many of the musicians there felt a little numb by the loss. But, the audience wouldn’t let the tragedy stop the celebration of music. They were there in throngs for Stone Temple Pilots, who were finally performing together for a new album, something they hadn’t done in almost a decade. Robbie Krieger also arrived to promote a new documentary on the Doors. Cheap Trick also got to help the audience rock on.

Muse, Courtney Love, and Smokey Robinson himself were all different performers helping to keep the crowd all sorts of riled up during the concert on Friday. To bring it to a close on Saturday was Estelle and Snoop Dogg, and most touching, a full Alex Chilton tribute really brought the night to a final close.

Thriller To Be Inducted Into National Film Registry

Posted by Kat – January 1, 2010

If there is one thing that can be said about people these days, it’s that everyone – and I mean everyone – knows “Thriller.” If you don’t know the Thriller dance, you know the song. You know the Vincent Price voiceover, you hear the opening of a creaky door or remember the Wolfman scene. The amazing video directed by John Landis in 1983 has now become one of the single most identifiable music videos in the industry and truly revolutionized the way music videos were done since then. And now, it has been given possibly the greatest honor any video could get – on Wednesday, it was inducted into the 2009 National Film Registry in the Library of Congress.

A true testament to the enduring qualities of the video, this marks the first music video to ever be named into the registry. The decision to do so comes after Jackson’s death and the release of “This Is It,” a video documenting the process of what would have been his farewell concert. The National Film Preservation Board believed that the time was right. In fact, Steve Legget, the coordinator of the NFPB has stated that they felt it was time to examine the development of music videos, due to how different the recording industry has become in the last twenty years.

And other than Thriller, “The Muppet Movie” and “The Incredible Shrinking Man” are only a few other titles also entering the Registry this year. On top of that, Michael Jackson’s “Captain EO” is now going to be returning to Disneyworld, showing that after the star’s death, fans and music-lovers everywhere recognize his contributions and will miss the famous star. Thanks to the National Film Registry, though, no one will forget him. Michael Jackson’s contributions to the music world and the film world will be officially preserved as part of America’s Culture.