In the genesis of any truly unique genre of music, there is a clearly defined sound and a clearly defined mentality or set of values that exists within the typical fan of said sound. As time goes on, that sound and mentality may increase in popularity, inspiring sub-genres, spin-offs, and the ever-despised fakers.
Whatever the case, as time goes on and as a given musical genre grows and evolves, it becomes less and less the clearly defined seed of creativity it once was and more a mere root of inspiration that runs through the various offshoots.
It is for this reason that “indie” is the new “punk.”
In its early years, “punk” had definition, both as a unique sonic experience and as a rebellious, middle-finger mentality toward the establishment. Fast-forward a decade or two and things get mighty blurry. Nowadays, everything can be a little “punk” if it wants to be.
Modern mainstream “punk” isn’t dangerous or sincere – it’s trendy and purchasable. True punk never cared to be mainstream, and that’s exactly why it blew up – there’s nothing cooler than someone who does their own thing and couldn’t give a shit less what you think of them.
Enter indie rock. Similar to early punk, early indie rock had a fairly uniform and recognizable sound and attitude. They weren’t in it for the fame and money. They shied away from major labels, or were simply ignored by them, and they didn’t dress to impress. They put out their albums on vinyl – before it was cool again – for crying out loud.
Enter the digital revolution. Pro Tools, home recording rigs, MySpace, Facebook, P2P filesharing services, torrents. Suddenly the means of self-production, distribution, and promotion are cheaper and more accessible. Suddenly major label support is harder to justify. Suddenly, every band wants to be independent.
And so, as with punk, at one time “indie” rock identified a particular sound, but now, because so many artists have latched onto the indie attitude of DIY, we have artists from all genres going “indie.”
A great example of this is Radiohead. Yes, that Radiohead – a band that could sell out Madison Square Garden every night of every day of every year, forever. Clearly not a bottom feeder, Yorke and company are “indie” nonetheless per the fact that they have no major label backing. They do it all on their own. They may not sound indie, but they operate indie.
Then there’s “indie music,” which is where the watered down nature of the term becomes most evident. Let’s see… there are indie bands that don’t play indie music (Minor Threat or Reel Big Fish), bands that play indie music that have major label support and thus are not truly indie (The Shins or Manchester Orchestra), and then you’ve got Sufjan Stevens, who is an indie artist who plays indie music.
But then again, what the hell is indie music anyhow? A particular sound defined by some elite panel of hipster judges? It’s easy to see why musicians themselves eschew genres, since a band can be defined differently depending on who you ask. Take Wilco. It can be called indie, folk, rock, country, Americana, or even pop. Are any of them entirely wrong? Are any of them entirely right?
Any of those genre adjectives could mean a number of things to different people. They’re just vines of inspiration, winding in and out of various bands down through the years, and as time goes on, they thin out. It’s incredibly rare that a new band goes so far back to the roots that it is inarguably definable – both in sound and attitude – as that core, source genre. They still exist – dyed in the wool punk and indie bands – but surely they themselves cringe when attempting to explain their place in the musical spectrum, knowing full well that their hard-earned, well-deserved adjective is nearly meaningless to anyone else. And it can never go back.
We live in a world where Avril Lavigne has been called “punk” and “indie” bands can go platinum overnight by popping up in an Apple commercial. And there’s not a goddamn thing the hardest of the hardcore or the indiest of the indie can do to change that.
Indie is the new punk. But hey, it was a fun ride while it lasted.
After The Matrix came out, every movie-going mouth-breather nationwide suddenly began waxing philosophical like coffeehouse hipsters. You may remember it sounding something like this, “So if reality is just a perception, and technology was advanced enough, how would you be able to tell if your life wasn’t just a super realistic videogame you’re plugged up to?”
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