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Help! I need a break from pseudo-hip
indie music fans
By
Jen Beasley
November 14, 2007 | If someone asks me one more time
if I've ever heard of some insipid and invisible indie
band I'm going to scream in such a way that I too will
be refused a mainstream record contract. Unfortunately
for me, such a noise will undoubtedly also gather me
a devoted following of unbathed hipsters, but if that
indie scene is what sticking it to The Man looks like,
I'm going to have to side with The Man.
I can't stand indie music anymore. Correction. I can't
stand indie fans. The music is too innocuous to be troublesome,
after all, but the fans are everywhere, screeching at
me about how their playlists are full of amazing music
I've never heard of, and would I like to?
They're like missionaries from some pathetic upstart
religion, desperate to gain enough converts to shun
the non-believers without getting beaten up, but also
without having such a large congregation as to be labeled
sellouts. What a tightrope, eh? It's soooo cool that
they can walk it.
Right.
What bothers me is not the music -- most of which
is just fine, like any music -- but rather how unusual
they think they are. Really, the indie scene has long
been a bastion for would-be cool cats to wallow in their
worldly-open-minded-pure-artistic Neverland. The independent
music scene has always been one of the trendiest ways
to become accepted in the supposedly trend-offended
counter culture cliques.
With ironically factory produced Che Guevara patches
on their satchels, the indie kids strut around talking
about revolution, listening to United Cookies of Girl
Scout Troop #41 or some other unwieldily monikered and
underground band, and presuming themselves to be so
original in spite of the fact that Ray Bradbury pegged
their Fahrenheitian radio shell iPod addiction way back
in 1953. That's before they, or Steve Jobs, were even
born.
Sorry to be all square, but 54 years behind the times
does not a revolution make.
If people want to listen to music that won't be found
on the radio, super. But to wear such habits as a badge
of musical superiority makes no sense. The fact is,
when a band has never been heard of by a majority of
the world's population, it is not likely a symptom of
underappreciated genius, but probably one of properly
appreciated mediocrity.
There are, of course, bands that are exceptions to
this. But even so, I can't help but think indie kids
would be better off actually listening to the bands
than listening to themselves talk about listening to
the bands.
And instead of abandoning favorite bands once too
many other people have heard of them, maybe the indie
kids could be happy when more people start listening
to good music. It is supposed to be good music, isn't
it?
And then, with more people listening to music because
they label it "good" instead of just listening to music
because it's label-less or not listening to it because
it's labeled, the dissonant indie self-righteousness
could finally give way to a world of musical harmony.
Like, whoa. Maybe then it really could be just about
the music, after all.
NW
MS |
