Northern California and Colorado have been home for freethinking creative minds for decades with music communities reflecting that diversity and innovation. The “San Francisco Sound” associated with the counterculture revolution of the 1960’s-1970’s paired with “The Oakland Sound” linked with the funk and soul of acts like Tower of Power and Graham Central Station balance the Rocky Mountain Americana songs of Colorado to provide the basis of that musical diversity in the San Francisco Chapter that continues today.
The Bay Area has produced musical icons such as Tom Waits, Edwin Hawkins, MC Hammer, Green Day, Neil Young, the Grateful Dead, Journey, John Adams, Jefferson Airplane, Bonnie Raitt, Dead Kennedys, Primus, and Santana. Oakland (“The East Bay”) is known for soulful blues from the likes of Fantastic Negrito and Taj Mahal, and Hip Hop and R&B acts IAMSU!, G-Eazy, E-40, Ledisi, and Raphael Saddiq - and even for the birth of thrash metal with acts like Metallica and Death Angel. Latin music rules the South Bay/San Jose from artists such as Los Tigres del Norte, Omar Sosa, and Pacific Mambo Orchestra.
San Francisco boasts the innovative Classical creativity of Michael Tilson Thomas (SF Symphony), Mason Bates, Kronos Quartet, and engineer Leslie Ann Jones at the helm of the Skywalker Sound Scoring Stage. Music for Visual Media is prevalent here in the Bay, where SONY PlayStation, Pixar, and the Game Audio Network Guild (G.A.N.G.) call home. Colorado is a center of American Roots music makers, including The Fray, Gregory Alan Isakov, and The Lumineers. Other genre highlights include dance/electronic music artists Tycho, GRiZ and Suzanne Ciani.
The SF Chapter’s unique creator communities embrace the divergent worlds of music and technology in a partnership with Silicon Valley imperative for the proliferation and promotion of music. The Outside Lands festival in Golden Gate Park and Napa’s Bottle Rock Festival challenged what we thought we knew about music festivals and counter/culture; Red Rocks offers nature’s finest music venue.
The San Francisco Chapter thrives on our advocacy work with lawmakers to improve and stabilize the music creator landscape, and offers inventive professional development and craft-focused programming for members to grow their business and brand of music making. Innovative P&E Wing sessions bring together the area’s active community of producers and engineers.
Please take a few minutes and explore not only what the San Francisco Chapter is doing, but what all the Chapters have to offer in the way of professional development and opportunities for our members.
Executive Director: Christen McFarland
President: Nona Brown
The Recording Academy
San Francisco Chapter
77 Van Ness Ave.
Suite 101, Box 1214
San Francisco, CA 94102
Ph: 415.749.0779
Fx: 310.998.2654
sanfrancisco@grammy.com
