I shall now bless ILxor by creating an unholy merger of two "geek obsessions": "Purity Tests" and "Music 'Posuerdom'"; My Question is this:
If someone were to create a "purity test" to test for "Indie Thug" contamination, what questions would be in it?
Details are below, courtesy of Nate Patrin (who will hopefully forgive the act of blatant plagarism I'm about to commit.
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INDIE THUG:
The Purple Throated Indie Thug (Albiniimentalis Robustus),
Whether they had a sudden revelation through a chance encounter with a Superchunk album or developed it gradually starting with Nevermind and graduating to Mudhoney, then Sonic Youth, then Husker Du, the indie thug has made it crystal clear that there is no turning back -- once they have discovered all the music that's out there away from the confines of what they call the "tyrannical corporate machine" they can only go deeper, never shallower.
These are the people who listen to music sometimes because they like it but also because it's fun to rub it into the faces of the unwashed, pitiful masses. While there is zero harm whatsoever in liking and actively praising indie rock, the Indie Thug is much more dangerous and sleazy than the casual indie rock dabbler because he will invariably find a way to make such interests seem completely inhospitable to the nerves of any potential unhip kids who could otherwise "cross over" and get a couple Built to Spill albums to go alongside their Foo Fighters CDs. Bands are praised less for their ability to make cool music than they are for their ability to:
(a) be "challenging" and
(b) "buck the system."
This is why you will occasionally see Indie Thugs talking smack about, say, the White Stripes but never, ever say a bad word against Fugazi -- as much as they claim it's about the music, it's more about who's been contributing to "the scene" longer and keeping their ticket prices cheap and staying on an indie label without resorting to being featured (aka "whoring yourself") in a publication with a six-figure circulation. Due to the high concentration of college newspapers and "grassroots" web sites, the Indie Thug is one of the most common variations of the North American Rock Critic, and therefore one of the most boring to talk about.
Copyright 1999-2002, Nate Patrin Enterprises, all rights reversed.
― Lord Luther Anarchiel Custos IX, Esq (Lord Custos Alpha), Sunday, 18 August 2002 01:53 (twenty-three years ago)
New "likes a band only because nobody (including the Indie Thug) has ever heard them before" answers, please.
― Lord Luther Anarchiel Custos IX, Esq (Lord Custos Alpha), Sunday, 18 August 2002 02:05 (twenty-three years ago)
three years pass...
Does the nu-nu-nu-nu-ILx crowd have anything to say on this?
― Lord Custos Omicron (Lord Custos Omicron), Wednesday, 8 February 2006 10:21 (twenty years ago)
Shut the fuck up, Custos, you're out of your element.
― Sick Mouthy (Nick Southall), Wednesday, 8 February 2006 10:47 (twenty years ago)
we're not talking about a guy who built the railroads here, nick.
― The Man Without Shadow (Enrique), Wednesday, 8 February 2006 10:49 (twenty years ago)
Wow, Mouthy...whats with all the hostility.
― Lord Custos Omicron (Lord Custos Omicron), Wednesday, 8 February 2006 11:00 (twenty years ago)
I used to get accused of this behaviour when I was at uni, because I was really into indie rock back then and some of my friends did suggest I only liked it because other people hadn't heard of it. Bollocks, of course, but I suppose I could be quite snobbish about other people's taste in music in my teens so I probably deserved it.
― Colonel Poo (Colonel Poo), Wednesday, 8 February 2006 16:45 (twenty years ago)
That's fair. I've been accused of this before as well, but it seems to be a behavior that dies after leaving high school. But I kinda feel like once you get into listening to a lot of music, the distinction between popular and unpopular kinda fades away. Though I will cop to not hearing a lot of the stuff that is really popular on the radio, just because that's not really a place I look for music anymore.
― js (honestengine), Wednesday, 8 February 2006 17:29 (twenty years ago)