On Musical Integrity

So, forgive me for going on a rant about hipster elitism that may or may not exist, but I have been wondering something lately about indie music. I cannot count the number of times I've been talking with a fellow music fan about an indie band that has been enjoying a degree of success, when the other person will say, "But haven't you noticed how they were so good in their first couple of years, then they got so popular and now they're really crappy?"

I'm sorry, but for exactly how many cases is this actually true? Sure, there are bands that have gone downhill since their first couple of albums. But then, if you will, take into account the fact that a) almost every band/artist has gone through at least one dry spell, and b) for lots of groups it just isn't true to begin with. Take artists like The Decemberists, My Morning Jacket, and Andrew Bird, all of whom have enjoyed near-meteoric success in the past couple of years. Four years ago, who had heard of any of these people? Now they are signed to major labels (with the exception of Andrew Bird), they've played to staggeringly huge crowds at some of the biggest rock festivals in the world, and their most recent albums are among their strongest to date. And none of them are heard on commercial radio (at least, I haven't!).

If you ask me, our era is one of niche markets. Artistic integrity is making a comeback, partly thanks to the Internet, which allows nearly everybody to find a strongly-dedicated, if small, audience. Nowadays, even having one of your songs playing on a television advert doesn't have to mean you've "sold out."

Give a listen to Andrew Bird's Noble Beast, or The Decemberists' The Hazards of Love. Have you ever heard anything like it? Would you believe the crowds they attract at shows if you weren't there yourself or hadn't seen the pictures? I'm not sure I would. But I like that. That good music can thrive almost exclusively by word-of-mouth; that you don't have to see it on MTV or hear it on Clearchannel to hear about it.

Who says the Internet is killing culture?