Skip to content
News

DIIV Ride Awesome Wave of SXSW ’13 Buzz, Alt-J Flounder on Twitter

diiv, sxsw 2013

Now that South By Southwest has ended and the hangovers have (hopefully) faded, it’s time to take stock of what actually happened in downtown Austin last week. SPIN has already highlighted the 50 Best Things We Saw, and now social media research firm Fizziology has offered their own take on SXSW 2013’s winners and losers.

The results? Among “unknown or new” bands, DIIV saw the biggest jump in social media presence with a 372 percent increase. Guess bitching about a festival then backpedaling to say, “JK, totally having fun,” can really up an act’s profile. Other big buzz winners include Haim — who ranked among the five best things SPIN saw on March 16 and banked a 263 percent uptick in social volume — and Muchacho folkie Phosphorescent, who pulled in a 258 percent social media swell. (SPIN cover stars Tegan and Sara weren’t far behind, though, finishing with an impressive 240 percent gain.)

Fizziology tracked the changes by noting mentions, shares, et cetera on social media outlets prior to and during SXSW, and weeded out anything that corresponded to any newly announced tour dates or upcoming record releases. That way, the folks at Fizziology were only examining social volume related to the annual festival. The Yeah Yeah Yeahs and Jim James actually saw the largest increases, with 802 percent and 530 percent, respectively, but those artists are more widely known than groups like DIIV and Haim, so YYYs and James were excluded from the final results.

Now, because who doesn’t love a downer ending, let’s peek at the darker end of the spectrum. According to Fizziology, the three “unknown or new” bands that saw the least social growth (meaning little to none) following SXSW were: Dawes, Empress Of, and Mercury Prize 2012 winners Alt-J. That’s not such an awesome wave, but there’s always next year, right?

Scroll down to read SPIN’s extensive SXSW 2013 coverage:

The 50 Best Things We Saw at SXSW 2013
SXSW 2013: SPIN’s Best Live Photos
SPIN at Stubb’s: Kendrick Lamar, Trinidad James, Solange Heat Up SXSW 2013
Download SPIN’s 60-Track Mixtape of SXSW’s Hottest Acts