Brief 13: Landfill Indie

This list about “Landfill Indie” has caused quite a stir in the small world. I usually get very cross about lists and/or people slagging off indie rock, but I found, in general, this list had a nice affectionate touch and sense of its own absurdity.

I had a few thoughts about it, but this is the one I’ll stick to: it made me remember that, yes, there did used to be lots of music I kind of hated, and that was kind of ok.

Now, with streaming, I listen to what I specifically want whenever I want, don’t listen to the radio much, if I like the recommendation something’s getting, I listen to it, carry on listening if I like it, don’t if not. My listening is, in a way, wide but limited – very little comes along unexpectedly.

Whereas, back in the day, I’d listen to a lot more different bands, mainly via listening to the radio (XFM or early 6 Music), there’d be a lot more music on TV (especially indie bands, which were actually in the charts) etc… so, though part of me, when confronted with a list like this says “there you are, people being snobby and too cool about indie music again, how tiresome” … but then I remember, no I really did used to dislike a lot of those bands. And I disliked them not because I was trying to be cool but because I heard their songs/read their interviews and had a reaction to them.

So, in each case, they were specific, but properly formed opinions. I was looking at the line-ups for festivals I went to in the mid-2000s and I remembered avoiding Keane, the Kooks and Kasabian, but really enjoying Franz Ferdinand, Maximo Park and Kaiser Chiefs. Of course, to some people (and even in one’s own memory), those might all be lumped in together as successful, solid 2000s indie-man-rock but at the time, there was a world apart in the details.

I guess the ones I like there are more “arty” per se than the ones I don’t (yes, even the Kaiser Chiefs are a certain kind of arty and clever) but, saying that, I’ve never been averse to a solid, straightforward indie-rock anthem if done right. It's just I didn't like a lot of those bands, even at their best. I think as you get older and you find a way to enjoy the soundtrack to ‘Frozen 2’ and just generally loosen up, you can tell yourself that there’s no point disdaining music. But actually, that disdain, if you’re really into your music, is not really a choice.

That “rock radio/rock magazine” culture I grew up with asked you to listen to and get to know a lot of groups of skinny white guys and those skinny white guys were not, actually, all the same, and any music fan was applying various finely-honed tools for discernment, to sift out those worth spending a tenner, and potentially a lot more, on, and those who were wasting your time.

I never paid to see any of the bands on the VICE list – I saw a few at festivals, a few as support acts, only bought a handle of their singles and albums, so realise, despite being a “2000s indie fan”, I’m adjacent to the people offended or delighted to the article, but, you know, I think it just reminded me that it’s ok to take the piss out of bands, it’s ok to not like bands … not much of a thought really.