topic d, part 6: science fiction/ double feature

aside from watching the "cooler" strain of radio-friendly pop rock try on and then discard such identities as "alternative", "college rock", and now "indie" (all of which were taken to mean slightly different sounds, granted), i find it even more interesting that "indie" has now become an equally neutured and meaningless term in the movie business.

i mean, not to call out little miss sunshine just because it was successful or anything, but it would seem that the idea of small-scale, independent filmmaking has most certainly been turned into the latest marketing gimmick for big-budget, high-starpower "quirky" character sketches set against often self-aware or indulgently existential plotlines.

and i can't think of any decent band rivalries these days that could be compared to blur/oasis (or even nirvana/pearl jam, much less stones/beatles), mostly because britpop didn't register that strongly for me. also, i'm not listening to the radio much these days, so my reference points are screwed.

for a certain crowd, maybe there's yeah yeah yeahs/liars, but in that case only because both have a loyal fanbase who might've "chosen sides" after the breakup. i dunno - even that seems to be a different sort of animal entirely, now that i think it over. is it because stuff has become ever more fragmented that i can't even think of two BIG bands with similar sounds? it doesn't seem fair to pit fall out boy against the killers.

maybe i need to ask more teenagers who totally sucks and who rules these days...

Topic D, Part 5: Cool Britannia

I’m glad Miss Imperial brought up Britpop’s “indie” angle, because it seems to me that today’s “indie” scene bears many similarities to that pop explosion of a decade ago, in terms of trajectory. I’m grateful, too, for the input of our reader/guest poster, who succinctly and perfectly made the distinction between honest-to-god DIY indie and contemporary “indie rock.” A true independent aesthetic still exists in the practice of thousands of amazing and determined bands, of course, but its heyday as a movement might have died with hardcore and (the original incarnation of) SST Records.

At its height, Britpop was inescapable (in Britain, obviously, but also in certain circles in North America, where even a cursory knowledge of Anglopopculture was an easy way to appear au courant, and required far less personal discipline than certain other options). It began in garages and basements, but evolved to take its place in the boardroom. It was, for a time, the face and sound of young Britain, a movement that told its elders Move aside, we’re making ourselves comfortable, and it soon found itself catered to in print ads, TV commercials, films, etc. And eventually, when its pretensions and aspirations outsized its inherent capacity for self-deprecation, modesty, intimacy and the initial rawness that defined much of its appeal (that is, when the bands decided they were artists), it fizzled.

The ubiquity and fractalization of today’s internet complicates the comparison, of course, but I’m still left to wonder: do we have a Blur vs. Oasis corollary? And what happens next?