Indie Rock’s R&B Movement Reaches Its Saturation Point
A few years back, a critical mass of musicians started making R&B steeped in the sort of art-damaged signifiers indie rock has traditionally claimed as its own.
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Get PocketA few years back, a critical mass of musicians started making R&B steeped in the sort of art-damaged signifiers indie rock has traditionally claimed as its own.
One of the most incredible concertgoing experiences of my life occurred two years ago this week, when I saw Jeff Mangum perform a solo acoustic show at the Pabst Theater in Milwaukee. If you happen to be partial to ’90s indie rock, Mangum requires no introduction.
Not long ago, Nashville had an indie-rock prince, and his name was Ben Todd. Todd loved local music, the cartoon Adventuretime, and Peach Nehi soda. He didn't drink and never went to bars. He car-surfed from convertibles and wore a suit to Gabby's Burgers, a local favorite, on Friday nights.
How The O.C. made indie rock safe for the airwaves, and vice versa So, I never watched The O.C. That’s a fact, not a value judgment. I’m not one of those insufferable boors who brag condescendingly about not watching supposedly disreputable TV shows.
I‘m sitting in a cab that is inching purposefully down a Manhattan street choked with traffic and rain. It feels like I’m living inside a song by the National,1 but I’m only talking about songs by the National with the band’s lead singer, Matt Berninger.
Every time we pause to look at the last however many years of music, things seem stranger and harder to pin down. Not the music itself, necessarily, but rather how it reaches us and finds its way into our lives. In 2010, Pitchfork had been regularly using Twitter for just over a year.
And Tegan and Sara, who eventually cracked the Top 20 with Heartthrob’s “Closer,” need to win over this audience just as they would at any concert. A track in the right commercial could bring about the kind of attention that magazine covers and radio play alone can no longer garner.