Member of the Month

hi_vis360
November, 2024

Online

Welcome to the Newschoolers forums! You may read the forums as a guest, however you must be a registered member to post. Register to become a member today!

Indie "art" music

profile picture
Arabian.
Posts: 9649 - Karma: 254
I've been thinking this lately - bear with me:

Nearly every "artsy" indie band lately has been a ripoff of either the Zombies, or Love. Every time I hear a good indie song with "art" themes or a storytelling motif, it's had too-close-for-comfort parallels with the two bands mentioned above. Case and point, Beirut and the Decemberists:

Elephant gun sounds like it would be right at home on Forever Changes:







And then with Mariner's Revenge song, it sounds like an oceanic ripoff of Butcher's Tale, from Odessey and Oracle, although 4 times as long, and not as good:



Feb 10 2010 11:50AM
0 0
profile picture
Arabian.
Posts: 9649 - Karma: 254
Sorry, I meant to finish -

So I've noticed a growing trend among indie artists. They seem to be going through the albums of old and picking out the best songs from these albums and imitating the mood and instrumentation. It's not something that I think is horrible, after all, Bob Dylan did it, and its a great exercise for improvement. What irks me is that these artists are Capitalizing on it, and not improving upon the past. I think that's what's wrong with indie music today. It's become less artistic and individualistic and more imitation and stagnancy.

Discuss.
Feb 10 2010 11:54AM
0 0
profile picture
low_fidelity
Posts: 2673 - Karma: 118
Forever Changes and Odessy & Oracle are both in my Top 5 albums of all time. And Begin Here by the Zombies is in the top 20. I will be back later to discuss your topic
Feb 10 2010 7:55PM
0 0
profile picture
yojimbo
Posts: 3631 - Karma: 27
I dunno I think those songs share similar qualities but the general feeling created by the overall composition of the songs is entirely different, at least for me. It could be however, that music and particularly individual songs has an entireley different affect on every single individual who listens to it. For example, elephant gun was introduced to me by a certain individual at a certain time in a certain place and thats the feeling that sticks with it, not so much what the artist put into it because I'm not him and I know I'll never have that same feeling. I think music is more about whatever you take from it so to compare it to older bands and say they're just picking songs and doing the same thing for appeal doesn't really make much sense to me, though it could be true. I guess I just view music from my own perspective and don't really care where the artist got his inspiration from so much as what the song itself does to me.  Also, I don't really understand what qualifies as indie "art" music. all music is a form of art, is it not? I especially dont understand what makes those particular songs "artsy" or indie "art" music.
Feb 15 2010 6:02PM
0 0
All times are Eastern (-5)