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I'm 27 (I'm getting old...) and I was in Highschool in the late 90s. I remember back then, if you listened to some band that no one heard of it was like you were "cool" and "edgy"...now?
I work with allot of college kids, and all of them, without exception, listen to the same old crap over and over and over again. If it isn't Beyonce it's Kanye, if it isn't Kanye it's Britney, it it isn't Britney, it's Coldplay. The same billboard hit music over and over again.
When ever they ask what I listen to and I name, say, Meat Beat Manifesto, they look at me and ask who they are and I say "well, they're a little electronic band signed on to Metropolis records which is a little indie label that deals mostly with electronic and goth music..." that's when I stop and realize that they're looking at me as if I have just said that I'm going to eat Appendix for dinner.
"a indie label?" they ask, "what the hell does that mean?!"
This is what I have noticed over and over again from people who are undergraduate age. Once, "kids" (I put quotes because if you're old enough to vote, you are no longer a kid) at that age were the ones who supported underground labels and artists. Now? They laugh and actually say "why should I listen to a band no one has ever heard of?"
Worst part is, in the age of the internet, people have more access to underground music than they ever did before. You can just point and click your way around myspace or youtube and hear music and genres that my generation would of only heard through friends or by chance. But still, for these "kids" who could easily find something new and exciting, they just lazily go right back to listening to that same old Justin Timberlake or Jay-Z crap on constant repeat.
I remember when I was fourteen, a friend of mine popped this CD on that changed everything. It was KMFDMs "Nihil", with that all-time superhit "Juke Joint Jezebel" YouTube - KMFDM - Juke Joint Jezebel That was/is the joint! We listened to KMFDM, Wumpscut, Skinny Puppy, Frontline Assembly, Aphex Twin, etc etc, and it was like, if you listened to something obscure, no matter what genre, you were looked at as being "in the know"...now, if a "kid" listens to something obscure, he/she is looked at like a weirdo, and there is no more appreciation of smaller scenes that need support and independent artist. If it isn't "top ten hits" than the "kids" today don't seem to want to hear it.
I was watching this special on VH1 Classics about how Nirvana and all those "alternative" bands got their start on college radio in the late 80s. Well, that wouldn't happen today, because A, no one listens to college radio anymore and B, the said college students are all hooked on Beyonce and Coldplay that's the only thing it would play.
Man...times have changed (I feel and sound more like an old man everyday...)
My son is 16 and he listens to just about everything there is...including those lesser-known bands I've never heard of. In fact, he loads 'em all up on my mp3 player so I get to enjoy them as well.
I think indie music is alive and well...you must be talking to the wrong kids. Beyonce and Britney? Nah...not what most of the kids I know listen to.
We don't have cable tv ( never have) - so any music appreciation we get is strictly from online, or the radio. And we seem to do just fine, and we listen to a lot of international music as well. I was listening to MIA long before the movie ever came out.
There will always be a large segment of society that indulges in the musical equivalent of McDonalds.
Kid Rock, Boy Bands, Britney, Fall Out Boy, Toby Keith, ect... supply that need just as the New Kids on the Block, Poison, Tiffany, ect... did when I was a kid.
I do agree though that it seems to be getting worse.
You can't really believe that just because you have not run into any "kids" who are into underground music, that none exist?
Go read pitchforkmedia.com.
You will find out that underground music snobbery is alive and well as it ever was.
You can't really believe that just because you have not run into any "kids" who are into underground music, that none exist?
Go read pitchforkmedia.com. You will find out that underground music snobbery is alive and well as it ever was.
I see you caught that as well. I listen to what I like. Whether it is mainstream or not is secondary. IMO, people who brag or think that it's "cool" to listen to underground artists come off as pretentious. At least that has been my experience.
You can't really believe that just because you have not run into any "kids" who are into underground music, that none exist?
Go read pitchforkmedia.com.
You will find out that underground music snobbery is alive and well as it ever was.
Yes, people who like underground artists are still around, but how old are they? On the internet, you can't see someone's age. Just look at most of the people who myspace underground bands, and most of them are in the late 20s and older range.
Also, listening to music that is not on mtv does not make one a snob. One can listen to underground music and still occassionally like pop or something, it is when people listen to nothing but music that's on the top 20 hits that they are indeed snobs.
I see you caught that as well. I listen to what I like. Whether it is mainstream or not is secondary. IMO, people who brag or think that it's "cool" to listen to underground artists come off as pretentious. At least that has been my experience.
That is exactly what I mean. In this day and age, someone saying that it's cool that they disovered an avant-garde band are called "pretentious" or "elitist", while people who refuse to listen to anything that isn't on Billboard's top ten are called "normal" and "cool".
The world has turned upside down in the last ten years...
There will always be a large segment of society that indulges in the musical equivalent of McDonalds.
Kid Rock, Boy Bands, Britney, Fall Out Boy, Toby Keith, ect... supply that need just as the New Kids on the Block, Poison, Tiffany, ect... did when I was a kid.
I do agree though that it seems to be getting worse.
Yahh, there have always been people who are MTV or nothing. I'm not saying people shouldn't listen to the radio, but when some suggest that you check out a band and the "kid" in question replies, "why should I listen to them? they don't make much money" than something is wrong!...and that is the exact reply that I have gotten from so many young people these days.
I listen to The Descendents, Skinny Puppy, and Bad Brains, which were popular in my day yet I still find ppl that haven't heard of them. I also listen to our local bands that play in the dive bars. I also happen to like Justin Timberlake and Jay-Z. And guess what? They were "underground" at one time, too. Everyone was.
I don't really concern myself with what others listen to. It's like food or your favorite color. Who cares if I hang with people that like lima beans (I hate 'em) or think purple is the shiiat. I try to expose myself to a little bit of everything. Just because I might like indie music and products and my friends like Britney is no reason for me to turn my nose up at them.
Yes, people who like underground artists are still around, but how old are they? On the internet, you can't see someone's age. Just look at most of the people who myspace underground bands, and most of them are in the late 20s and older range.
OK- yeah, this may be true. I am 34 years old and I really don't socialize with a lot of people who are 10+ years younger than me.
I do happen to know one young guy (21, I think) who is not at all a music snob or even a professed music connoisseur, but he still knows his "underground" stuff. When we talk - music often comes up (for lack of anything better) and he is usually familiar with obscure stuff. He seems like a normal early-20s type and he is pretty aware.
I dunno - you could be right, but I have a hard time believing that people in their late teens/early twenties are -on the whole- less interested in underground music than they were when I was that age.
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