thumb|East 6th Street, one of Austin's best known entertainment districts

The official motto of Austin, Texas is the "Live Music Capital of the World" due to the high volume of live music venues in the city. Austin is known internationally for the South by Southwest (SXSW) and the Austin City Limits (ACL) Music Festivals which feature eclectic international lineups. The greatest concentrations of music venues in Austin are around 6th Street, Central East Austin, the Red River Cultural District, the Warehouse District, the University of Texas, South Congress, and South Lamar.

"Austin music" in its modern form emerged in 1972 when "a new form of country music exploded on the scene that turned its back on Nashville and embraced the counterculture", much of it centered around the Armadillo World Headquarters music venue, which opened in 1970, alternating country and rock music shows. In 1972, Willie Nelson left Nashville and moved to Austin.

Austin has become renowned as a haven for young innovative musicians who were drawn in by the creativity, liberal politics, and low cost-of-living. Austin's reputation continued to grow and become celebrated for its folk, blues, jazz, bluegrass, Tejano, zydeco, new wave, punk, and indie music scenes.

The City also hosts the Austin Symphony, Austin Civic Orchestras, Austin Opera, Austin Baroque Orchestra and La Folia Baroque.

History

thumb|Scholz Garten and Saengerrunde Hall

A large portion of Austin's early musical heritage began in the German Beer Gardens and Halls in the late 1800s, in places such as Scholz Garten and Hall (the hall later to become Saengerrunde Hall) and further up the road at Dessau Hall. Dessau Hall peaked in the 1940s and 1950s with acts as diverse as Glenn Miller, Hank Williams, and Elvis Presley.

Other major venues for country music included Big Gil's on South Congress and The Skyline on North Lamar. Local singer/yodeler Kenneth Threadgill opened Threadgill's in 1933 on North Lamar, a venue that later hosted folk/country jams where Janis Joplin participated in her early days. On the east side of town, which historically had a rich culture of African American heritage and influence, music venues such as the Victory Grill, Charlie's Playhouse, Big Mary's, Ernie's Chicken Shack, and Doris Miller Auditorium featured local and touring acts. These destinations, which were part of the "Chitlin' Circuit" featuring big bands, jazz and blues, became famous for later hosting musical legends including Duke Ellington, Ray Charles, Bobby Bland, B.B. King, Ike Turner and Tina Turner.

In 1964 the Broken Spoke opened, featuring country acts such as Bob Wills, Ernest Tubb, and the young Willie Nelson. The late-1960s and 1970s saw the country music popularized by Willie Nelson and others being joined by a host of other music brought by the more liberal inhabitants, who migrated to Austin during these two decades. Specifically, Roky Erickson and his 13th Floor Elevators helped bring in this psychedelic era.

In the 1960s in Austin, Texas, legendary music venues including the Vulcan Gas Company and the Armadillo World Headquarters and musical talent like Janis Joplin, the 13th Floor Elevators, (Johnny and Edgar) Winter brothers, Shiva's Headband and, later, Stevie Ray Vaughan. Austin was also home to a large New Left activist movement, one of the earliest underground papers, The Rag, and graphic artists like creator Gilbert Shelton, underground comix pioneer Jack Jackson (Jaxon), and surrealist armadillo artist Jim Franklin.

thumb|The Armadillo World Headquarters in 1976

The Vulcan morphed into the Armadillo World Headquarters in 1970 and for more than ten years featured music of all genres, from Bruce Springsteen to Bette Midler, as well as local ballet, blues and jazz. The artwork from this establishment was a part of the Austin scene and the Armadillo became the Austin city animal. Songs such as Gary P. Nunn's "London Homesick Blues" (which includes in the chorus "I want to go home with the armadillo") made this a staple of Austin. The artist who began the Armadillo logo was Jim Franklin, who is still working today.

"Austin music" in its modern form emerged in 1972 when "a new form of country music exploded on the scene that turned its back on Nashville and embraced the counterculture". On New Year's Eve, Austin's local KOKE-FM radio station switched to a new programming format geared to mixed crowds first called "country rock", and later "progressive country".

By November of that year; the first pilot for the iconic Austin City Limits was being filmed with Willie Nelson, Billboard Magazine named KOKE “the most innovative radio station in the country," and Austin had a national reputation thanks largely to the reporting of Rolling Stone stringer Chet Flippo, who seemed to get a dispatch from the Armadillo into every issue." The Skunks' lineup consisted of Jesse Sublett on bass and vocals, Eddie Munoz on guitar and Bill Blackmon on drums. The Violators featured Kathy Valentine (later of The Go-Go's), Carla Olson (later of the Textones), Marilyn Dean and Sublett on the bass. The Violators were short-lived, as all the members except for Sublett moved to LA the following year. Margaret Moser, of the Austin Chronicle, later wrote that "The Skunks put Austin on the rock n' roll map." Other influential bands that led the punk scene in Austin were the Big Boys and D-Day.

Austin became one of the important stops on every tour of important punk/new wave acts. Many of these bands, such as the Police, Joe Jackson, Blondie and Talking Heads, played at the Armadillo. A number of them, including the Clash, Elvis Costello and Blondie, would make appearances at gigs by the Skunks and take the opportunity to jam with the band.

The 1980s and 1990s also helped shape Austin's music scene. Waterloo Records, which has been voted the best independent record store in the country and hosts live in-store shows, first opened in 1982. Austinite Stevie Ray Vaughan won a Grammy in 1990 for best contemporary blues album. After tragically dying in a helicopter crash, he was memorialized with a statue on the shores of Austin's Lady Bird Lake. Additionally in 1991, Austin city leaders named Austin, "The Live Music Capital of the World", because of the number of live music venues.

Visitors and Austinites alike may notice the 10-foot guitars standing on the sides of the city's streets. In 2006, Gibson Guitar brought Guitar Town to Austin, placing 35 of these giant guitars around the city.

The Austin Music Foundation is one of several Austin groups that help independent artists further their music careers. Assisting musicians with medical needs are the SIMS Foundation and Health Alliance for Austin Musicians (HAAM). Promotion, preservation and education is the mission of the Austin Blues Society, formed in 2006 by Kaz Kazanoff and other blues community notables.

Helping to promote the $1 billion music industry in the city is the Austin Music Office. A department of the Austin Convention & Visitors Bureau, the Austin Music Office offers creative, personalized assistance in booking live music, discounted Austin Compilation CDs and mini-guides to the city's live music scene, assistance with utilization of live music venues for off-site events, and guidance with local music attractions and creation of music tours.

Television

The PBS live music television show Austin City Limits began in 1974 and has featured, , over 500 artists of various genres, including rock, folk, country, bluegrass and zydeco. Partly responsible for Austin's reputation as a live music hub, the show is broadcast worldwide and stands as the longest running music television program ever. On February 26, 2011, ACL held its first taping in its new purpose-built Moody Theater and studio in downtown Austin's W Austin Hotel and Residences. Despite a seating capacity of over 2,700, audiences will be limited to around 800 (the original total seating capacity of the old studio). The additional seating capacity will be used for the ACL Live concert series at the venue.

Austin was also home to the Austin Music Network (AMN), which broadcast from 1994 to 2005. AMN, featured on cable channel 15, proclaimed itself to be the only non-profit independent music television channel, and its programming was mostly music videos or recorded live sessions, interspersed with presenters. Although all musical tastes were broadcast, AMN emphasized non-mainstream music such as indie, punk, blues, country and jazz.

Channel 15 was a 24-hour music channel now run by Music and Entertainment Television (M*E). M*E launched October 1, 2005, and was broadcast to Austin and the 44 surrounding cities. M*E was a regional network dedicated to showcasing and providing television exposure for regional artists as well as the hundreds of touring groups that make up the vibrant Texas live music scene. Supporting established artists and promoting and discovering new talent is a priority. M*E represented different musical genres and areas of the arts community with numerous original programs highlighting everything from filmmakers to art galleries, and musicians to the ballet. In addition, M*E's mostly music lineup, spotlighted live performance footage, concept music videos as well as biographies, reviews, restaurant tours and more.

Festivals

right|thumb|[[Austin City Limits Music Festival with view of stages and the Austin skyline]]

Austin is the home of South by Southwest (SXSW), an annual music, film and interactive conference and festival, and the expanding number of fringe events that take place during the festival, at venues all over town. In the fall, Austin hosts the Austin City Limits Music Festival (ACL) and the Fun Fun Fun Fest.

In the spring, the long-running Old Settler's Music Festival takes place at the Salt Lick Pavilion & Camp Ben McCulloch just outside the city. Every summer, Austin City Limits Radio puts on a series of free blues shows in Zilker Park entitled "Blues on the Green. "

Also in the summer, the City of Austin Parks and Recreation Department holds the Hillside Summer Concert Series music festival, throughout the month of July. This is held at the Pan American Recreation Center. This festival was the first DJ to perform at the festival, in 2014.

Numerous other music festivals occur year-round. Other annual festivals include the Keep Austin Weird Festival and the Heart of Texas Quadruple Bypass Music Festival, a.k.a. the Texas Rockfest.

Austin is home to other large annual festivals including:

  • Carnaval Brasileiro
  • Eeyore's Birthday Party
  • Levitation (formerly Austin Psych Fest)
  • Oblivion Access Festival
  • Old Pecan Street Festival
  • Republic of Texas Biker Rally

Venues

The Austin Chronicle, Visit Austin, Do512, and Phosphene Productions offer information on the most common venues that host local bands.

Below is a short list of notable venues:

  • The 13th Floor
  • Antone's (reopened in new location)
  • B. D. Riley's (new location)
  • The Backroom
  • The Backyard
  • Beerland
  • The Broken Spoke