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"How Selling Out Saved Indie Rock"
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stray
stray
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Re: "How Selling Out Saved Indie Rock"
Nov 18, 2013, 11:55
I think I have an advantage, or a horrible bias, when it comes to understanding/accepting the homogenisation of music scenes from my involvement in Electronic and Dance music. They are forms that develop and mutates faster than any other. I've seen what was once called Techno renamed as House, Goan Trance became just Trance again, became Techno again, or even got badged Electro (on account of some squeaking 303s going through resonant filter sweeps) These were just name changes, the musical style/form itself didn't really change. All that changed is that time passed. If you had a time machine and took a tune forward and backwards in time it would be identified with different genre terms. Also in a weird abstract way it would also end up having different audiences, be heard in different clubs, be in different peoples record bags, etc, etc.

This is not unique to Electronic or Dance music, it happens in any form of culture. We clique cos we're human. It's just because these forms develop so damn quickly it's actually noticeable year on year. The terms get crystallised, rules change or become more strict. Strata are formed, flexibility is lost. Things get homogenised under a banner/genre. So ? The experimentation continues, new forms happen, old forms cross and mutate. Things still move forwards, the names/banners can't keep up. The only constant is, if you can't dance to it but it's got a beat then it's called IDM ;).

What the hell does Indie mean ? I know what it meant, but then it became a sound, and it had sub genres too, like 'jangle pop'. We clique. Indie labels identifying with a scene are responsible for this, much like electronic labels were. It's not a question of following the approaches of Majors, it's just what naturally happens, strata form. The trick for a label is to try and build themselves into such a way that they themselves don't crystalise. 4AD and Creation managed this, then.. ah.. see what happened there ? Same problem as Ninja Tune and Warp. At least when Touch Records noticed this happening to them they decided to just not be a record label anymore.
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Re: "How Selling Out Saved Indie Rock" (stray)		 Replies:
Re: "How Selling Out Saved Indie Rock" (Moon Cat)
Re: "How Selling Out Saved Indie Rock" (IanB)
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