Daniel Dale Johnston was an American singer, musician and artist regarded as a significant figure in outsider, lo-fi, and alternative music scenes. Most of his work consisted of cassettes recorded alone in his home, and his music was frequently cited for its "pure" and "childlike" qualities.
The music of Oregon reflects the diverse array of styles present in the music of the United States, from Native American music to the contemporary genres of rock and roll, country, rhythm and blues, jazz, pop, electronic music, and hip hop. However, throughout most of its history, the state has been relatively isolated from the cultural forces shaping American music. Much of modern popular music traces its roots to the emergence in the late 19th century of African American blues and the growth of gospel music in the 1920s. African American musicians borrowed elements of European and Indigenous musics to create new American forms. As Oregon's population was more homogeneous and more white than the United States as a whole, the state did not play a significant role in this history.
KEXP-FM is a non-commercial radio station licensed to Seattle, Washington, United States, specializing in alternative and indie rock programmed by its disc jockeys for the Seattle metropolitan area. KEXP's studios are located at Seattle Center, while the transmitter is in the city's Capitol Hill neighborhood. The station is operated by the non-profit entity Friends of KEXP, an affiliate of the University of Washington (UW).
South by Southwest, abbreviated as SXSW and colloquially referred to as South By, is an annual conglomeration of parallel film, interactive media, and music festivals and conferences organized jointly that take place in mid-March in Austin, Texas, United States. It began in 1987 and has continued growing in both scope and size every year. In 2017, the conference lasted for 10 days with the interactive track lasting for five days, music for seven days, and film for nine days. There was no in-person event in 2020 and 2021 as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic in Austin, Texas; in both years there was a smaller online event instead.
In Buenos Aires, Argentina, a couple of lovers of dark and psychedelic rock and punk came together in 1998 to form Capsula, a band with a unique sound that blended garage, glam, and punk rock. Their name, which means "capsule" in Spanish, is derived from the David Bowie song "Space Oddity".
The Little Ones was an indie pop band based in Los Angeles, California. The music of the band, which features tambourines and handclaps, has garnered comparisons to 1960s pop bands such as The Beach Boys, The Zombies, The Kinks, modern-day pop group The Shins, and the Elephant Six collective.
Grand Hallway is an American rock band from Seattle, Washington, led by singer and multi-instrumentalist Tomo Nakayama. Their sound is described variously as chamber pop, indie folk, and art rock.
Mico de Noche is an American stoner sludge metal band from Seattle, Washington. Mico de Noche began as a duo in 2001 with Donovan Stewart on drums and vocals, and Michael Crum on guitar and vocals.
Bang! Bang! Eche! were an alternative rock band from Christchurch, New Zealand, active between 2007 and 2013.
The Shackeltons are a post-punk band from Chambersburg, Pennsylvania. Despite the spelling, they are named after the Antarctic explorer Ernest Shackleton.
Mark Nichols is an American playwright, composer, and lyricist, best known for his musicals Little Boy Goes to Hell (1988), Joe Bean (2003), and How to Survive the Apocalypse (2009). He is also known in the northwestern United States for his work with Fred Jamison for whom he arranged 20 Northwest Coast Native songs for orchestra, girl choir, and rock band, performed by the Seattle Symphony in 1996.
The Maldives are an alt-country band from Seattle, Washington, known for sold-out live performances described by KEXP-FM as "transcendent".
Dinosaur Bones are a Canadian indie rock band formed in 2008 in Toronto consisting of songwriter/vocalist/guitarist Ben Fox, bassist Branko Scekic, keyboardist David Wickland, drummer Lucas Fredette, and guitarist Josh Byrne.
Mehnaz Hoosein is an Indian pop singer and songwriter from Mumbai, India, popularly known for her hit song 'Banoongi Main Miss India'. She is a graduate from St. Xavier's College, Mumbai. At the age of 13, Mehnaz started her vocal training in Hindustani classical music under the tutelage of Pandit Bhavdeep Jaipurwale. She began training as a dancer with Shiamak Davar from 1988 and performed with the Shiamak Davar Institute of Performing Arts till 1995. Mehnaz achieved success with her song Miss India which won her the 1996 Channel V Music Award for Best Female Pop Vocalist. At the time, Mehnaz was managed by Diana Hayden who was crowned Miss India the same year. It was in the nineties that Indi-pop began to emerge as an alternative to film music in India when a large number of pop singers emerged on the music scene.
Korea Spotlight, originally named K-Pop Night Out at SXSW (KPNO), is an annual concert of South Korean artists held in the United States, organized by Korea Creative Content Agency (KOCCA). It started in 2013, and is a music showcase of the annual SXSW music festival in Austin, Texas.
Seoulsonic (SEOULSONIC), is an annual concert tour in the United States and Canada, organized by the DFSB Kollective with support from the Korea Creative Content Agency (KOCCA), which began in 2011 in an effort to introduce South Korea's indie music culture to the West. The tour includes annual stops at SXSW in Austin, Texas and the Canadian Music Week in Toronto, Canada.
Beth Harrington is an Emmy-winning, Grammy-nominated filmmaker based in Vancouver, Washington, specializing in documentary features. Her documentaries often explore American history, music and culture, including the Carter Family and Johnny Cash, and the history of women in rockabilly. In addition to her film work as a producer, director and writer, Harrington is also a singer and guitarist, and was a member of Jonathan Richman and the Modern Lovers from 1980 to 1983.
Japan Nite is an annual music event in North America which began in 1996, featuring Japanese rock, pop, and alternative music artists. Originally centered around South by Southwest in Austin, Texas, the event expanded in later years to include multi-city tours of the United States, and has often been the first US performance for the participating artists.
Acid Tongue is an American rock band, formed in 2015 in Seattle, Washington. In 2022, Rolling Stone featured Acid Tongue on their In My Room concert series. To date, the band has released three studio albums and four EPs on Seattle independent label Freakout Records.
Freakout Festival is an annual 4-day underground music festival held at various venues around the Ballard neighborhood of Seattle each November. Since 2013, this festival has featured a mix of independent and mainstream performers, and has garnered press from around the globe. The programming primarily focuses on rock and roll, punk, and psychedelic rock music, but has also been known to include hip-hop, electronic and more experimental forms of music.
