SXSW: A look to Grammy future?

By Todd Martens, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer

If the Grammys attempt to honor the past year in music, the annual South by Southwest Music Conference in Austin, Texas, hopes to foretell its future. So why wait for Recording Academy voters to (maybe) come around?

That's not to say there hasn't been overlap. Amy Winehouse was a SXSW buzz act last year, playing (and cancelling) a handful of shows throughout the event. And Grammy-nominated acts such as the Arctic Monkeys, the White Stripes, LCD Soundsystem and Lily Allen, among others, have all played SXSW.

Here’s some of the best of SXSW, and, in a just world, what Grammy each artist would win.

Pictured: M. Ward and Zooey Deschanel of She & Him