Three Cheers For The 'New Indie'
Today's Indie Kids Are More Open-Minded Than In The 1980s
© Ben Wood
In the 1980s, British indie culture seemed stuck in a ghetto mentality. But in today's iPod culture, it is more open-minded, and cooler-looking, than ever before
The dark ages of Margaret Thatcher
In 1980s Britain, Margaret Thatcher ruled with an iron fist, there were only four TV channels and nothing happened on a Sunday. Maybe to compensate for this, there was an incredible plethora of youth tribes, all with their own look, socio-cultural stance and drink/drug of choice. Joining one was a serious business, and it determined who you hung around with, what you did… and even, to some extent, how you thought.
Two-tone, goths, soulboys: Britain's many youth tribes
Two-tone kids, Goths, soulboys, metalheads, punks, New Romantics, ravers, casuals… take one look at someone and you could usually tell what category they fitted into. Obviously some people remained stubbornly outside those cliques – and would have less reason to cringe at their old photos, a few years down the line. But many young people were happy to conform to them. And surely youth culture should reject conformity of any nature?
Life in the indie bunker
Indie kids weren’t immune. As the number of new labels mushroomed in the post-punk era, different musical scenes developed but a certain type of indie look reigned supreme – influenced by the British holy trinity of the NME, the John Peel show and the charity shop. Maybe it was a desperate rearguard action (the days of Thatcher, Reagan, yuppies and Stock, Aitken and Waterman were not a good time for those of a non-materialistic, non-philistine bent), but by the mid-80s certain traits had asserted themselves from town to town, across the country.
Indie kids worshipped the Smiths and the likes of Postcard Records; and favoured bowlcuts for the boys, band T-shirts, hairgrips for the girls, wore kiddies badges and displayed a fondness for things twee. By the start of the 1990s, a self-defeating ghetto mentality had set in, with most ‘indie’ acts sounding increasingly safe, white and uninspiring. Failure was welcomed as confirming one’s superiority to the herd. But the likes of Kingmaker deserved nothing more.
Suddenly everything has changed
Fast-forward two decades. It’s Christmas 2006, and in the heart of London’s Soho, a temporary club called Everything Must Go has been set up by the Heavenly Social people. Like the club, the gig is a charmingly ramshackle affair featuring singer/songwriter Ed Harcourt and his muso mates. The crowd has its share of music industry types, but is definitely a collection of indie kids, from their teens to their thirties… and, praise the Lord, everybody looks different!
Looking around, the onlooker could see (deep breath): girls rocking the Sienna Miller hippyish boho look; boys with more facial hair than has been seen for many a year (everything from bushy Southern backwoods Will Oldham beards to 70s porn star, and pencil-line pimp, moustaches) as well as more clean-cut types; variations on the punk looks, from trash-punk to the tie, bullet-belt and eyeliner Emo look; the timeless indie geek look; sleek and glamorous Sadie Frost types; Toni and Guy rock’n’rollers, immaculately coiffured and looking like they’re auditioning for a place in Kasabian; Physics student hippy types; and some who look like they’ve just turned up from work.
All Tomorrow's Parties
Cool is one of those qualities that’s impossible to describe, but easy to spot. And, whatever their get-up, this crowd had it. But part of their appeal was that they were unafraid to express themselves: being a sheep was not on the agenda. This welcome open-mindedness, which can be seen in the line-ups at All Tomorrow’s Parties events for instance, means that today’s indie kid listens to a far broader range of music than before. Old country, Scott Walker, prog-rock, harpists (Joanna Newsom), free jazz, avant-garde electronica… if it’s interesting, it gets a listen. After all, the root of the term ‘indie’ is independent, and today’s growing open-mindedness represents a determination not to be boxed in, either musically or aesthetically.
Maybe the upturn in indie aesthetics is a result of today’s information overload era. You can now download pretty much any band or singer you want; and there are so many media channels out there that it is far easier to educate yourself musically. Had Nick Drake, Love or the Velvet Underground been around today, it is unlikely that they would have languished in obscurity. Or maybe, in a culture where Syd Barrett’s death makes the front pages and everyone wants Glastonbury tickets, the indie hipster has to try that little bit harder to stand out.
Three cheers for the iPod
Whatever the reasons, the iPod generation is now used to listening to everything it wants to, in no particular order. I think this is a good thing: it has spawned an open-minded attitude so widespread that there are now innumerable 10-year-olds with excellent taste in music. Great records can finally reach a decent audience; and even David Cameron (The Smiths) and Gordon Brown (Arctic Monkeys) have to pretend to be into this funny noisy music.
Oh well, almost all good news then…
