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The Death of Genre

With the eve of SXSW being upon the entire city of Austin and much of the music industry, I've noticed that in paying attention to modern music there is a obvious lack of genre. This is not a bad thing of course, but it does present questions what musical integrity really means. When I was younger, the style and genre of a band acted as a barometer for their values and integrity regarding music as art. I'm probably biased since most of the music I listened to was of the general "punk" variety and was meant to question mainstream music as a whole.

Childish thinking aside, it still seems as though "indie" music is not what it used to be. The bands are pretty darn close to being mainstream both in terms of fan base and sonically. If you look at the more talked about "indie" bands they don't reflect as much rebellion as past artists. Take someone like Neko Case, M. Ward or St. Vincent and you can see what I mean. At one point this kind of music might be considered "alternative" to reflect its parallels to mainstream music in terms of popularity, while still keeping its edge. Really though, it is tough to argue that the above artists have much of an edge.

I want to make it clear that I'm not criticizing anyone here, just making an observation. I really like Neko Case. What is interesting is how the availability created by Internet seems to have destroyed some of the needs or requirements for a genre. Personally, I think it is kind of cool. I remember hearing punk bands on skating videos and being extremely excited to know the music existed. It is fascinating to think that there is the beginnings of a generation that may never need to search aimlessly to find music that speaks directly to them. Likewise, from the bands perspective, it is exciting to know that they have fewer and fewer reasons to sacrifice their sounds in order to find fans. Even while the music industry is a mess, it is nice to still see silver linings every now and then.

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