Abstract: Are labels and names and classifications slowly losing their significance to give room to free flowing multidimensional and interdisciplinary art that only uses those labels for their own promotion and publicity? The trick is stigma. We are now convinced that it is cool to be unusual, off the beaten path and exclusive. Less known is alluring. Calling something indie is like tagging it 'hep' and that unfortunate consequence is a result of this revisiting of the 1960s we seem to be going through. Awareness and getting "in touch with ourselves" seems to be the theme of the decade that has gone by, right from Chicken Soup For The Soul to that movie Crash.
I read somewhere about how the artist experience seems to be making a come back. In the 60s and 70s, the music was personal. People knew about the artists and their lives were a big part of the world. The late 70s disco and all through the 80s up until the late 90s showed us how it was about the music more than the people that made it. We were thinking about AIDS and the Berlin wall and liberalization and MC Hammer's can't touch this. We didn't care about MC Hammer. Or Salt n Peppa even though we DID want to talk about sex. We had mullets and watched Lethal Weapon and got career oriented. Computers and Chris Gardner.
Since 2000, we are now very interested in the music we buy. When I say buy, I mean invest our attention in. It's 2010 now and twitter acts as a way for our celebrities to give us a glimpse of who they really are. Following someone on twitter and seeing what they write about (read: John Mayer) makes you feel like it's your facebook home page and Mr. Mayer is just another friend talking about his last trip to the doctor and everything is getting personal again. If we like and understand the artist, his music is definitely something we're going to put on our iPods and in our cars. And then there's another side to it. Like the Gorillaz. Hiding behind those animated characters makes us curious.
But then the music better be darn good if you're going to pull that off.
Anyway, my point is... I think you might want to explore indie as a cultural shift more than a genre. Is there really a distinction between indie and popular music?
Anyway, my point is... I think you might want to explore indie as a cultural shift more than a genre. Is there really a distinction between indie and popular music?
Or maybe indie is a means to describe music made by artists who really are about the music more than the sales and the propaganda. Which translates loosely to everyone who doesn't work with Timbaland. I mean, the ones that do are still out to have fun but maybe the indie scene is more about the art-form than Sunset Boulevard.
Sometimes the two mix... but not as often as when indie music crosses into popular territory.
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