Indie-scussion

This evening I had the opportunity to have a discussion on music with my good friend Ben Rothermel.

We started off talking about indie music and how it has developed. He is writing a paper on the indie movement regarding its roots, disposition, and complexion. He was interested in gaining another perspective to add to his paper.

We had some interesting issues come about in our discussion. We decided that indie music (created by independent, unsigned artists) is more realistic than commercial music (mainstream; created by signed musicians with a particular interest in finance). We agree that indie music is better if it is done right.

However, we had two didactic perspectives on the relationship between performer and audience. Ben thought that indie artists can form a stronger bond with their audience since the social distance between the them is much smaller. He claims that a mainstream artist is much more removed from their audience than a local indie artist. I brought up the converse, where mainstream artists have a much stronger connection (granted, superficially) to their audience at large. I claim that, for instance, a fan of Switchfoot may know more about Jon Foreman than a fan of NoRedTape may know about Ben (I define fan as a one-sided relationship) and thus would have a “closer” relationship to a mainstream artist. Arguments can really be made for both sides.

We also talked of the “lo-fi” quality of indie artists. There is something so pristine about a mainstream production that in essence makes the recording “too perfect.” An indie band generally falls short of that, and creates a sound that seems more genuine.

This raises an interesting question of reality. In life, things are generally not perfect. Bi-sect a tree vertically: will you find branches sprouting at the same height on each side? will there be an equal number of leaves on each side? will birds of the same type choose to make equally-sized nests on both sides, equidistant from the trunk? No, and if all that were true, the tree would look artificial. This is why art or music can be seen as “too perfect” and therefore unrealistic.

I think I went way off the deep end. Today I drank a red-eye and it’s really affecting me.