Will the Indie Rock scene change the world?

Housing Jim

I don't think the indie rock scene can be classed as a musical movement in the same way that the bands of the early 90s were.

In the early 90s, those bands started on a local scene and that was where the buzz grew from and it wasn't until later that the press got involved. It was a gradual growth.

The indie rock scene is very much flash in the pan. It's been built by the press, largely on bands who have very little substance or anything really going for them. It's a trend, and it'll probably only be a year until this one has run it's course. There will be survivors, one or two, who'll make it but in ten years time, no one will even remember the majority of these bands.

sleeplikeadog

I don't think music can change the world, but I definately think that it inspires people to want to change the world, and look at things from different perspectives and maybe even change how they live. Music is an awesome force. But I don't think any of these "indie" rock bands will get the job done, and I don't feel that it's a movement. I don't feel that these bands even have anything to say or have the balls to stand up and say it in a way that people would notice if they did. Music (at least mainstream music) is in a generic state right now.

musicismylife78

i guess its just a difference of opinion. My life has been changed by music. And I would guess I am not alone in this assertion. It feeds me, its food, its as important to me as breathing and blood rushing in my veins. So thats how I feel.

Anyways, music has always been in protest movements. From the labor movement and woody guthrie and joe hill to the Civil rights movement and "we shall overcome" and "blowin in the wind", to Antiwar vietnam movement with Crosby Stills and Nash and Jimi Hendrix, to now with the antiglobalization movement and Rage or Antiflag

To me music is power. As I said before, I cant stand mainstream music, but the truth is most of that music has a good melody and is catchy as hell. Music ets under all our skin, and permeates our body. Both bad and good music. And most of the music we are emmersed in is complete crap. But emmersing oneself in music that is political and invigorating is something that can change the world.

Many on here really dislike Coldplay, I think they are great myself, anyways, the lead singer always has this equal sign on his hand symbolizing opposition to Free Trade and NAFTA, CAFTA, WTO and all that. So Coldplay seems really popular with everyone right now. I think its important to realize the power they have. And if Chris Martin can get more kids aware of Free trade and why its bad, then I think that is a positive. Music has power that politicians dont have. In that it is the voice of youth. Its the voice of the real culture, of real society. Lets be honest people dont look up to John Kerry or Al Gore, Kids look up to musicians. And if those musicians are telling kids to be political and activists, that is a very powerful thing.

To me, music is and should be dangerous and angry, and a threat to the status quo. And that is expressed in Uncle Neil's new record, he didnt just want to protest Bush and the war, he wanted people to go out and change the world. Or another example is Fugazi. Ian mackaye doesnt just think music is something for background noise. He wants the audience to participate and he wants people to use that power to change the world.

Listen to Wake Up by Arcade Fire. WIn Butler was trying to inspire a rebellion among youth, to rise up and start the revolution, start taking our destiny in our own hands.

Music should inspire and aim to change the world. When it fails to do that, we are all doomed

Indifference

Cheguevara6 wrote:

i guess its just a difference of opinion. My life has been changed by music. And I would guess I am not alone in this assertion. It feeds me, its food, its as important to me as breathing and blood rushing in my veins. So thats how I feel.

Anyways, music has always been in protest movements. From the labor movement and woody guthrie and joe hill to the Civil rights movement and "we shall overcome" and "blowin in the wind", to Antiwar vietnam movement with Crosby Stills and Nash and Jimi Hendrix, to now with the antiglobalization movement and Rage or Antiflag

To me music is power. As I said before, I cant stand mainstream music, but the truth is most of that music has a good melody and is catchy as hell. Music ets under all our skin, and permeates our body. Both bad and good music. And most of the music we are emmersed in is complete crap. But emmersing oneself in music that is political and invigorating is something that can change the world.

Many on here really dislike Coldplay, I think they are great myself, anyways, the lead singer always has this equal sign on his hand symbolizing opposition to Free Trade and NAFTA, CAFTA, WTO and all that. So Coldplay seems really popular with everyone right now. I think its important to realize the power they have. And if Chris Martin can get more kids aware of Free trade and why its bad, then I think that is a positive. Music has power that politicians dont have. In that it is the voice of youth. Its the voice of the real culture, of real society. Lets be honest people dont look up to John Kerry or Al Gore, Kids look up to musicians. And if those musicians are telling kids to be political and activists, that is a very powerful thing.

To me, music is and should be dangerous and angry, and a threat to the status quo. And that is expressed in Uncle Neil's new record, he didnt just want to protest Bush and the war, he wanted people to go out and change the world. Or another example is Fugazi. Ian mackaye doesnt just think music is something for background noise. He wants the audience to participate and he wants people to use that power to change the world.

Listen to Wake Up by Arcade Fire. WIn Butler was trying to inspire a rebellion among youth, to rise up and start the revolution, start taking our destiny in our own hands.

Music should inspire and aim to change the world. When it fails to do that, we are all doomed

Free trade is not bad.

musicismylife78

Free trade is absurd. The WTO, CAFTA, NAFTA and all those things are unfair, they instill power in the U.S. and countries like it, while giving little power to those countries who are poor. Secondly, it is ruining our environment. American Corporations now move their factories to third world countries for several reasons, one is that in these third world countries the labor movement is non existent and people dont exactly rise up and fight the bosses about having to be paid 10 cents a day. Additionally, their are less strong environmental regiulations in those countries so the corporations can pollute. So to compete in this globalized and expanding free trade world, these countries lower environmental and labor standards to attract buissness of U.S. coroporations.
Lastly, the idea of globalization is absurd because it's basis is that more buisness and more corporations and more industrialization and more capitalism is inherently a good thing. I think many in the u.s. and many around the world are in disagreement with that idea.

But again, the point being, music is popular with young teens especially. And if bands can point fans in directions of politics and activism instead of sex, drugs and violence and stuff like that, I think we have some hope.

And let me qualify this, I agree with you buddy. Free Trade isnt bad....just as long as you are not a third world country, and just as long as you think the destruction of our trees and rivers and forests is a good thing

pjoasisrule

I hope you joking, there arent enough good bands around these days to change the world. 95% of indie bands are average - crap

Indifference

Cheguevara6 wrote:

Free trade is absurd. The WTO, CAFTA, NAFTA and all those things are unfair, they instill power in the U.S. and countries like it, while giving little power to those countries who are poor. Secondly, it is ruining our environment. American Corporations now move their factories to third world countries for several reasons, one is that in these third world countries the labor movement is non existent and people dont exactly rise up and fight the bosses about having to be paid 10 cents a day. Additionally, their are less strong environmental regiulations in those countries so the corporations can pollute. So to compete in this globalized and expanding free trade world, these countries lower environmental and labor standards to attract buissness of U.S. coroporations.
Lastly, the idea of globalization is absurd because it's basis is that more buisness and more corporations and more industrialization and more capitalism is inherently a good thing. I think many in the u.s. and many around the world are in disagreement with that idea.

But again, the point being, music is popular with young teens especially. And if bands can point fans in directions of politics and activism instead of sex, drugs and violence and stuff like that, I think we have some hope.

And let me qualify this, I agree with you buddy. isnt bad....just as long as you are not a third world country, and just as long as you think the destruction of our trees and rivers and forests is a good thing

More capitalism is bad? Economic growth in the last half-century has been consistently strong. Life expectancy has almost doubled in the developing world since the postwar years and is starting to close the gap on the developed world where the improvement has been smaller. Infant mortality has decreased in every developing region of the world. Income inequality for the world as a whole is diminishing.Many other variables such as per capita food supplies, literacy, child labor, and access to clean water have also improved -JUST HORIFIC!!!! And if your thinking music is going to influence the lazy lazy ME ME generation of today's youth - dream some more.

Anyway here is some more truth:

http://www.nationalreview.com/nordlinger/nordlinger200509270142.asp
http://slate.msn.com/id/2107100/

Adidos......

soulsinging

Housing Jim wrote:

I don't think the indie rock scene can be classed as a musical movement in the same way that the bands of the early 90s were.

In the early 90s, those bands started on a local scene and that was where the buzz grew from and it wasn't until later that the press got involved. It was a gradual growth.

The indie rock scene is very much flash in the pan. It's been built by the press, largely on bands who have very little substance or anything really going for them. It's a trend, and it'll probably only be a year until this one has run it's course. There will be survivors, one or two, who'll make it but in ten years time, no one will even remember the majority of these bands.

10 years time? you mean like the one or two grunge bands who survived the 90s? come on... it cracks me up when the grunge apostles act so pathetically desperate to prove that their music is so superior to any music that came before or after. dyou really need the validation that badly?

the bands he mentioned are uniformly excellent and are every bit the match of the seattle scene of the 90s.

glasshouse

i like some of the new indie music, and it is propably much better for music than the rap/hip-hop/pink-pop/and-what-not revolution staged during the end of the 90's and the early 00's, but i don't like the pretencious attitude associated with the genre (indie) and the fans. actually it is killing me - they really aren't all that clever/original/left field as they claim to be. i know this is a massive generalization, but true for the majority imo

evenflow82

Twatay wrote:

all i gotta ask is....are you fucking kidding me?!?!?

I'm in total agreement.

boroff89

pjoasisrule wrote:

I hope you joking, there arent enough good bands around these days to change the world. 95% of indie bands are average - crap

That is kind of a comical statement. I'd say within this "genre" of indie rock, there is a far greater percentage of bands making meaningful, creative, inventive music than in most other eras, including the early 90s "grunge" scene. But the fact that you like Oasis I think explains your continued stance on this issue. I consider Oasis to be one of the more boring, ridiculous, and stagnant bands on the planet. Again, the beauty of music. We all hear different things. Back to indie bands though, the problem isn't the quality. It's the lack of a platform. Che, these bands will not change the world in any broad sense. They sell, if they're lucky, 500K albums in the US. There are very few rock radio stations left, and out of those that exist, most rely on playing more mainstream rock. Some kids are in touch with these bands, but it is nothing like what happened when Nirvana broke. There is no MTV. There is nothing that has taken its place. Some might argue the Internet, but it is different. You have to want to go looking for stuff. With MTV, it was held up on a tee for every kid in America to swing at. If the record industry wants to understand its lack of record sales, they should look to that lack of a platform before they look at downloading.

boroff89

Housing Jim wrote:

I don't think the indie rock scene can be classed as a musical movement in the same way that the bands of the early 90s were.

In the early 90s, those bands started on a local scene and that was where the buzz grew from and it wasn't until later that the press got involved. It was a gradual growth.

The indie rock scene is very much flash in the pan. It's been built by the press, largely on bands who have very little substance or anything really going for them. It's a trend, and it'll probably only be a year until this one has run it's course. There will be survivors, one or two, who'll make it but in ten years time, no one will even remember the majority of these bands.

You show your ignorance of the entire indie scene here. Just like with the Seattle sound, the indie scene consists of many bands who have been doing this for years. Modest Mouse has been around since the mid-90s. The Shins existed long before Oh Inverted World when they were called Flake (and Flake Music). Just like with the Seattle scene, there has been great music made below the surface of mainstream rock for quite some time. For many, this is just their first chance to hear it. And going back to the early 90s movement and bands being remembered, you are out of touch. Most kids don't know who Pearl Jam is. They don't know Soundgarden or Alice in Chains. They sure as hell don't know Faith No More (the most underappreciated band of the late 80s-early 90s). They know Nirvana, and that is just about it. Music has changed. There isn't going to be another Led Zeppelin or Beatles in terms of the scope of their influence and their being large than life. We just need to accept that.

soulsinging

glasshouse wrote:

i like some of the new indie music, and it is propably much better for music than the rap/hip-hop/pink-pop/and-what-not revolution staged during the end of the 90's and the early 00's, but i don't like the pretencious attitude associated with the genre (indie) and the fans. actually it is killing me - they really aren't all that clever/original/left field as they claim to be. i know this is a massive generalization, but true for the majority imo

i 100% agree with you. "it's not the band i hate, it's their fans." too many indie fans are pretentious twats who think their bands shit solid gold. and as much as i like a lot of the bands getting bigger these days, they're not exactly doing anything new. but that's cool with me.

soulsinging

boroff89 wrote:

That is kind of a comical statement. I'd say within this "genre" of indie rock, there is a far greater percentage of bands making meaningful, creative, inventive music than in most other eras, including the early 90s "grunge" scene. But the fact that you like Oasis I think explains your continued stance on this issue. I consider Oasis to be one of the more boring, ridiculous, and stagnant bands on the planet. Again, the beauty of music. We all hear different things. Back to indie bands though, the problem isn't the quality. It's the lack of a platform. Che, these bands will not change the world in any broad sense. They sell, if they're lucky, 500K albums in the US. There are very few rock radio stations left, and out of those that exist, most rely on playing more mainstream rock. Some kids are in touch with these bands, but it is nothing like what happened when Nirvana broke. There is no MTV. There is nothing that has taken its place. Some might argue the Internet, but it is different. You have to want to go looking for stuff. With MTV, it was held up on a tee for every kid in America to swing at. If the record industry wants to understand its lack of record sales, they should look to that lack of a platform before they look at downloading.

nothing wrong with oasis. good music is good music and it's people like you who think once a band sells 500,000 albums they have to suck cos they're corporate that annoy me.

i like oasis... i like clap your hands say yeah
i like buckcherry... i like arcade fire
i like JET... i like new pornographers

good music knows no boundaries and has nothing to do with whether or not its indie or mainstream.

deadmosquito

glasshouse wrote:

i like some of the new indie music, and it is propably much better for music than the rap/hip-hop/pink-pop/and-what-not revolution staged during the end of the 90's and the early 00's, but i don't like the pretencious attitude associated with the genre (indie) and the fans. actually it is killing me - they really aren't all that clever/original/left field as they claim to be. i know this is a massive generalization, but true for the majority imo

i have to agree with you. those "scene" kids get on my fucking nerves so much. they look down their nose at you for no other reason than they think they know something you don't because they listen to music that no one's ever heard of. ugh.

Blackeyedangel

Indie is such a shit term. There are so many different types of bands that fall under the category I don't even think it means anything anymore. Just slightly more obscure music I guess. There really is no organized movement for indie, nothing compared to the grunge scene of the early nineties. Hell, the closest thing to that would be the Emo scene and the bands that came out of that in the early half of this decade, but most of them have either branched out or are distancing themselves musically from their origins.

So I have no idea what's next in terms of the big scene.

boroff89

soulsinging wrote:

nothing wrong with oasis. good music is good music and it's people like you who think once a band sells 500,000 albums they have to suck cos they're corporate that annoy me.

i like oasis... i like clap your hands say yeah
i like buckcherry... i like arcade fire
i like JET... i like new pornographers

good music knows no boundaries and has nothing to do with whether or not its indie or mainstream.

Wow. Completely not what I said. I was the guy here arguing that American Idiot was one of the best albums in years. I don't like Oasis or Jet because I find their music to be stale. It doesn't reach me. You missed my point, but that's okay.

webberf1

sorry people, but the Indie scene just doesnt have enough massive quality like the early 90's alternative did to start a revolution. it doesnt have the focus and destiny.

its all well and good to see something try to challenge the pop/hip-hop crap, but you'd be naive to think it will be a 'revolution'.

drew0

I have a feeling something is coming, and the indie scene right now will start the fire, but I don't think any of those bands are big enough, or unique enough to become mainstream and popular enough to change the music scene. They may serve as the Pixies and Sonic Youth, but I'm confident we haven't seen our Nirvana, Pearl Jam, or Rage.

Probably because I'm not a huge fan of the indie scene - I find most of those bands to be boring and repetitive.

pjalive21

no way Indie music is going to create a movement...ive listened to all those bands listed by the original poster and all i can say is snorefest!!!

there may be meaning to the music but the substance is lacking (or testosterone) and all pretty much sounds the same and runs together