Pitchfork has an interesting review by Matt LeMay of This Is Next, a sampler of popular indie bands. The selection is predictable, made up as it is of bands from the college coffeehouse circuit as I like to think of it. In other words, these are bands that sound enough like 'normal' music to not offend anyone. (The possible exception is Sonic Youth, but they usually have at least one slower, softer song per album. To be honest, although I like Sonic Youth, I never understood why they were the ones to break out of the mid-80's indie scene. Maybe they just stuck around longer than anyone else?) LeMay makes a good point in observing that all of these tracks are available for free on the internet because indie labels, being far more progressive than their major label kin out of economic necessity, realize that making a good single available for free helps, rather than hurts, album sales. Where LeMay goes astray, however, is in assuming that there is no audience for this type of collection.
"It's hard to imagine a Spoon fan picking up this CD and discovering Sonic Youth for the first time; in fact, it's hard to imagine a Spoon fan-- or a fan of any of these artists-- picking up this CD at all."
Okay, but is it hard to imagine say, a Nora Jones fan who happens to have heard of The Shins because of the Garden State soundtrack discovering Feist this way? She is close enough to the standard female pop sound that it wouldn't be at all surprising to hear her on mainstream radio. Maybe this compilation does more to show the odd, and sometimes inexplicable distinctions that are made between genres nowadays.
"Even so, as a shoddy, transparent, and poorly packaged ploy to sell indie rock cachet to the 'casual' consumer, this compilation is far more condescending than some dude who gets pissed off when he sees a Shins CD at Starbucks. Not every attempt to bring underground music to a wider audience is praiseworthy, and the recent popular emergence of indie music is a product of circumstances that can't really be corralled or replicated."
Sure, it's not praiseworthy, but what's wrong with it? The popular emergence of indie sounds can indeed be corralled and replicated, as the grunge and electronica scenes have shown us. What LeMay fails to mention is that the music chosen for this compilation sounds very close to accepted 'non-indie' music. And if that's the case, why expect major labels to treat it any differently? I understand why This Is Next received a 0.0, and I don't even disagree with that rating. But every single compilation like this, the NOW series and it's ilk, deserves the same rating. In these heady file-sharing days, if you aren't getting good cover art and interesting liner notes you aren't getting anything.
I'm not quite sure why Pitchfork chose to write about this - unless of course they have nothing else to write about given that the music scene is dying a slow and ugly death. I mean, is any of this news? So some record company put some compilation together. Is anyone else even talking about this compilation? Did it like sell a million copies and break indie rock into suburban households everywhere? Record companies are record companies. Big freakin' deal. "O.O" is just another case of Pitchfork "anti-perspective."
ReplyDeleteThe real story here is that, as far as I can tell, indie rock has pretty much broken into the mainstream over the past few years, and yet that hasn't felt very exciting. When grunge broke through, I was barely paying attention personally, but at least in retrospect it seems like it was a little more gratifying. Now it's more like, "Wow, Modest Mouse went to Number One, but's that's mostly because the rest of popular music has been so bad." People have only gravitated to artists that were hanging around anyway, rather than really discovered exciting new bands.
The other thing is that since the music industry keeps pretending that there's no such thing as illegal filesharing, there's no accurate gauge of what the most popular music is right now. The Billboard charts are no longer an accurate reflection of what music is popular. The Billboard charts are an accurate reflection of what music is popular among 13-year-old girls and 65-year-old men. The rest of the public is lost in the sea of downloading. Everyone I know has heard of the Magnetic Fields and Air and Elliott Smith, and yet they barely scraped the "official" Top 40. I wonder what an honest "filesharing" chart would tell us.
Modest Mouse are popular now because they started making popular sounding songs. Listen to their earlier music and you can tell the difference. The other big indie hits lately, The Shins, Spoon, etc. all sound very pop friendly. The major labels are so messed up right now that even music fits perfectly with their aesthetic takes years to get there.
ReplyDeleteI agree that the popularity of indie music is underestimated, but your experience is also due to your surroundings. You would probably have a different experience growing up in Oaklahoma, or even the Central Valley!
As for grunge, the only band that I listen to is Nirvana, and weren't they really punk rock?? Hell, Tool is better than every grunge band other than Nirvana, and they're really prog! ...or some combination of punk and prog... Uh oh, I'm beginning to sound like a record reviewer.
I thought all bands were indie bands now a days. Just like all movies seem to be indie movies even though they all seem to have ten million dollar budgets and big name stars.
ReplyDeleteIf you get picked up by a major label, you cease to be "indie" because you cease to play "indie" songs. Major labels want something they can play on the radio and won't piss someone off when they buy the CD because of that one song. That's why there is so much file sharing and downloading going on. People were tired of buying a whole album because they liked the one radio friendly song, and the rest of the album was completely different (Fuel, Uncle Cracker, etc).
hahhahahhaha, you guys rock. I love this blog. Still, I am feeling nostalgic today. Kinda of like this:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2-xIulyVsG8
bummer, links don't work here. This is where I was trying to point you:
ReplyDeleteBob Dylan - Subterranean Homesick Blues (youTube has the video)
The first rap song ever K'd! And the first and best music video! Dylan's the man.
ReplyDeleteI agree with most of what you say Ninquelote, but what about Sonic Youth? They've been on a major label for years and somehow still sound indie. They are the monkey wrench in the system. Like David Lynch in movies.
Also--Marxist conspiracy theory of the day--Sonic Youth and David Lynch are allowed into the capitalist system to provide a needed steam valve for pent up psychic baggage and thus prevent the artist/student segment from fomenting revolution!
ReplyDeleteI like the cut of your jib, yoggoth. You are right about Sonic Youth and David Lynch. I think what you are saying is that having exceptions to the rule is more of a need than a fluke.
ReplyDeleteYeah, that sounds good. Of course there might be other factors. Maybe they're friends with somebody. Maybe their work is cheap to make so no one really cares much either way. But I think the need rather then fluke idea could still apply.
ReplyDelete[The Billboard charts are no longer an accurate reflection of what music is popular. The Billboard charts are an accurate reflection of what music is popular among 13-year-old girls and 65-year-old men.]
ReplyDeleteI'll tell you what's popular! It's that Umbrella song, it's so damn catchy and will be responsible for an entire generation of kids not knowing how to spell Umbrella. I gotta go listen to my umberella... ella.. ella.. ay ay oh oh (?)
I know how to spell umbrella:
ReplyDeleteb u m b e r s h o o t
"I thought all bands were indie bands now a days. Just like all movies seem to be indie movies even though they all seem to have ten million dollar budgets and big name stars."
ReplyDeleteYes, the meaning of "indie" really has lost some its clarity these days. Now it seems to be used more as a description of style rather than as a genuine categorical designation. But even so, I still think it's useful to make such a designation, however arbitrary it may sometimes be. I mean, the Sex Pistols may have been on Warner Brothers, but that didn't exactly make them "mainstream," as far as I'm concerned.