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Is Indie Dead?: Music Critics Respond

16

Earlier this week, Paste magazine posted its February cover story online, intentionally raising a few eyebrows. Rachael Maddux’s piece asks “Is Indie Dead?” Her answer: Yes it is. And it killed itself. That is, if you can even get anyone to agree on what the word “indie” means. According to Maddux,

“We have several forces to thank for this growing, increasingly toxic confusion: a mainstream culture never above poaching; a precariously teetering music industry; an Internet booming harder than the Old West, with less rules and more cowboy posturing; plus, an aging movement whose original mix of urgent otherness and charming hubris has — for many members of its second generation — simmered down to solipsism and entitlement”

If you enjoy a debate that is, at its roots, mostly about semantics, Maddux’s piece is an interesting, if at times painful read. What’s more, it’s a conversation starter. That’s why we asked ten writers and editors from some of our favorite music sites to give it a read and then respond with their gut reactions. Please note: We promised not to cut/edit/twist their responses in any way.

Find out what they had to say on the topic here »

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Comments (16)

Definitely dead. What aspect of most “indie” music could be considered well and truly different from any “mainstream.” Only the label (or increasingly common: lack thereof), which is next to useless thanks to the internet. How many bands have you recently read about that are labeled indie, only to have their sound described as “catchy” or “pop?” A sizable amount of these groups have more popularity than Bowie did in his Ziggy Stardust prime, for example. If the sound is Pop (or trying to be), and the notoriety is Pop, what difference is there? Nothing at all.

let’s see… i’m now old enough to document the change in name of this music from ‘progressive’ (mid to late eighties/early nineties), to ‘alternative’, to ‘indie’… they’re all the same, right? and how bout ‘underground’ music?
as a musician, former radio DJ and active music obsessive, it seems that indie is now a sound rather than a category. it’s dead AND boring. style have become cut and paste: a little electro, a little world, a little folk, a little blue eyed soul, a little garage… it’s so easy now. to discover something new, you just type in some query in a search engine and move around a few variables. remember the days when you discovered you’re NEW favorite band because they opened up for your PREVIOUS favorite band?.. you’d never heard of them, you were blown away and you couldn’t believe something so wild was even out there and it escaped you… no more.

on the other hand, if you equate ‘indie’ as ‘underground’ like i do, there are scenes and sounds going backwards… surf and rockabilly are no longer on the ‘indie’ radar… it’s even more passionate of a scene than 15 years ago… i’m sure there are others scenes, sounds doing the same. go support them instead of typing “vampire weekend mediafire” into google… idiot…

black lips, bjtmassacre,dwarhols,black angels,brmc.none of those are dead yet, although………..

I hate all rock. I am an atheist too. God and rock are dead. The whole sound just bores me to death. Why do people like this sh*t? It all sounds the same. The guitars and drums drowned out the vocals. Why go to some rock concert, stand around with a bunch of losers? Grow up and listen to some music with out the forced excitement.

[...] Is Indie Dead?: Music Critics Respond (Earplug / FlavorWire.com) by Jessica Hopper (author of The Girls’ Guide to Rocking), Brandon Stosuy (senior writer at Stereogum), Judy Berman (managing editor of Earplug), Christopher Weingarten (tweets record reviews of 2010’s new releases @1000TimesYes), Johnny Firecloud (music editor for CraveOnline), Marvin Lin (editor-in-chief of Tiny Mix Tapes), John Doran (editor of The Quietus), Luke Turner (associate editor of The Quietus), Michael Byrne (Baltimore City Paper), Andy Phillips (editor-in-chief of MOG) [...]

[...] only found out about it because Flavorpill asked “ten writers and editors from some of [their] favorite music sites to contribute a [...]

[...] this song, mainly because Kenna is pretty good, but the fact that I started internet surfing on the death of “indie” tells me how interesting this song [...]

A lot of these responses are amazing. I wish I could pick out my favorite, but I can’t. I responded to her article on Paste by saying how ridiculous it was that she was basing her argument on a few popular indie acts. I said for every one Vampire Weekend there are dozens of acts like Mayyors, Home Blitz and Part Chimp and even more we haven’t heard of. She fired back that I assumed she was basing her whole argument on the fact that Vampire Weekend are popular. She’s an idiot who can’t take criticism for writing a shitty article. 8/10 of these responses said the exact same thing I did. Thank you for working on this!

Doesn’t ‘indie’ originally mean ‘independent’, as in not signed to a label??

[...] for nothing else, the article is thought provoking and you should definitely check out some notable music journalists’ replies. However, more upsetting than the articles proposition is that the pure and simple enjoyment of [...]

To me all this proves is ‘dead’ and ‘alive’ are relative terms. Tell me more about the LA punk-weirdo scene. Does it live?

The only people asked to respond to the essay were all firmly entrenched members of so-called ‘indie’ institutions.
Not a single person said anything even remotely positive about the fact that Rachael Maddux’s essay raised some very interesting points. It’s like they didn’t even consider it- all were just turned off immediately by the big line.
That should be a sign that the essay hit close to the heart.
Also, what is this bullcrap about the ‘death of the big labels’- the big guys ALWAYS SURVIVE or at least reform in some way. We’ve been through changes like this in the music industry since it’s inception. How about back when the radio came out and changed everything? People have been bootlegging and pirating for over fifty years. Sure the distribution model is changing, and things are up in the air, but it’s really nothing new. Haven’t we been hearing for about 7 years now that myspace is the future? Really? Cause I don’t see how that much has changed. Sure anybody can get their music out now, but that doesn’t make it worth listening to. It also doesn’t mean that anybody is going to actually listen to it either. Furthermore, myspace hits and plays have ceased to be meaningful. Someone with a million hits isn’t necessarily guaranteed anything from that number.
We’re already seeing the vanguard of the indie decamp from myspace en masse for other filesharing sites, ones that don’t openly display hits or plays.
Open your eyes and see that music and the industry never stray far from their intended course.

[...] from employees, it seems like the news came as a surprise to even the core editorial staff. While we may not have always agreed with Paste, we certainly read it often and enjoyed its generally smart writing and passion for music. [...]

I feel that is a fascinating aspect, it made me suppose a bit. Thanks for sparking my pondering cap. Every so often I am getting so much in a rut that I simply feel like a record.

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