Tunnel Vision
Whilst I’m still constantly amazed by how many obscure indie bands I’ve never heard of and how many legendary ones I’ve barely ever listened to (Sonic Youth and the Jesus & Mary Chain for example), I still assume that my depth of knowledge must be pretty impressive when it comes to left field independent music.
I suppose it’s almost inevitable that, as a consequence of this depth, my breadth of awareness has suffered an awful lot. I look back on my Best of the Year lists for 2004 and 2005 and there are bands like the Killers, Bloc Party and Maximo Park on there. Now, I make absolutely no apology for that whatsoever. All three of those albums are brilliant pop records, and a little more in the case of Bloc Party, however badly they followed it up. There’s no shame in liking stuff which happens to be popular, and I still listen to all of that music with enjoyment.
So what’s my point? Well, look at my Top 10 for 2007 (Part 1 & Part 2) and 2008 (Part 1 & Part 2), and the difference is huge. Grinderman are big and famous, and the Twilight Sad have done pretty well here and there. Umm.. Elvis Perkins is on XL I guess. But there’s basically no-one on either list who your average punter in the street would be likely to have even heard of, never mind like.
More noticably, however, there is no pop. I know that all music is essentially pop, just for slightly different audiences, but there’s nothing that I would describe as populist. A lot of those albums do work really well as pop albums, of course they do, but Maximo Park seem to have the sole goal of writing irrepressible pop tunes, and they were all over the radio, as were the Killers and Bloc Party. I don’t even know which bands would be the equivalent of that today. Who is all over XFM and 6Music and Radio1 all at the same time? I guess Vampire Weekend count, possibly. And, erm… I don’t know. I actually have no idea. Who fills the Corn Exchange these days?
There are loads of reasons, of course. Partly bands becoming so broadly popular seems less frequent these days, people’s listening habits are changing and how people access music is changing. And, as Campfires & Battlefield said on a previous thread on this topic some time ago: who cares?
I am not apologising, of course: back then I listened to lots of music I loved, now I do the exact same thing. It’s just interesting how far away from the mainstream I find myself wandering. And if you think I’m exaggerating just imagine what the difference in total album sales between the old lists and the new lists would be – that more than anything drives the point home, as far as I am concerned.
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The Killers – Believe Me Natalie
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