Is Indie consumerist bullsh*t?

TheBig3 · 01-05-2023, 06:53 AM

Grooming is a non-starter. I'll add a disclaimer to the OP.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Queen Boo

Y'all may remember me being quite the indie hater back in the day but hey guess what I grew up, and yet here's a guy in his 40s regurgitating all the same lazy stereotypes that were already getting old 20 years ago. Indie rock is one of the broadest musical categories there is it covers so many different styles and yet he has no problem making the most extreme generalizations about it, saying it all lacks passion and meaning. He's seriously calling Sonic Youth safe and lumping them in with f*cking Munford & Sons? He dismisses Husker Du as nothing but a heavier REM and his go to example is a song from their most commercial, least punk influenced album? Pretty revealing that he uses some girl he knew as a personal anecdote and just comes off as a judgemental assh*le.

I loved indie then and now but I still feel like it devolved into formulaic BS. I just watched Meet Me in the Bathroom and it reminded me of how much of a non-formulaic genre it was in, say, 2003. It reminded me of the early 90s when record execs didn't know what the kids wants and signed all sorts of bands with the only criteria being "not hair metal."

And maybe because I was there in my formative years I'm slightly more offended by the Wes Anderson ethos+twee vocals=avocado commercials.

https://youtu.be/N0_9LWiViVo?t=27

I don't think any genre is original. It all comes from somewhere, but I think coming out of nu-metal saturation, Indie felt like we had a bit more variety again like when Soundgarden played after POTUSOA and before CAKE. I don't really pine for those early 2000s, but I do think the genre has not only become commercialized but also just a sad joke of what it was.

The Stomp Clap Hey
The Ironic everything
For reasons I don't completely get I can't stand the Lumineers

It all sounds the same to me now, and it didn't really used to. When I joined this site, My Morning Jacket, TV on the Radio, The White Stripes, Modest Mouse felt like they were putting out non-formulaic stuff. While I do think (as I said in the opener) he's using a too-wide definition, the accusation that indie seems as commercial as bro-country doesn't seem wildly off base. But maybe this is how the Nazi's get you. They say "we had a zooey deschanel youth, and we're being sold a dakota johnson tomorrow" and then you get a pamphlet about white power or something. I don't know. Maybe I just needed to hear Indie get called out for its bull****.

Feel free to tell me I'm an old man yelling at a cloud.