South by Southwest Music Conference panels have become increasingly interactive – not solely in the sense of audience and experts commingling, but in the ever-widening dialogue of reinvention between the industry and both its careerists and consumers. Trends such as crowdfunding bubble under the larger mushroom cloud/crowd of Facebook, while MCs reinvent hip-hop's street CNN with a social-media savvy ready-made for Twitter and Foursquare. Maybe "Sturgeon's Revelation" (see "
I'm Not Old Your Music Does Suck"), the idea that all is dross, isn't overtaking contemporary music as fast as everyone thinks. We cherry-picked nine SXSW Music panels whose issues and personalities speak to the moment, then threw in a dance lesson of sorts for good measure.