hibbett (2005). what is indie rock

Popular Music and Society | j RoutledqeVol. 28, No. 1, February 2005, pp. 55-77 l \ Ta,io,£.F,ancsc,o.

What Is Indie Rock?Ryan Hibbett

This article defines the music category "indie rock" not just as an aesthetic genre, but asa method of social differentiation as well as a marketing tool. Using Pierre Bourdieu'sconcept of "cultural capital," it draws a parallel between indie rock and high art, both ofwhich depend upon a lack of popularity for their value, and require specializedknowledge to be fully appreciated. In its attempt to locate indie rock at the intersection ofvarious artistic, social, and commercial phenomena, the article engages in detailedanalysis of particular artists, songs, lyrics, websites, and reviews, from which it concludesthat this relatively new genre is part of an old and familiar social structure.

Introduction

Rock music in recent years has seen itself parceled into countless categories, subject toa process of endless generation and definition that complicates the mainstream/alternative binary to the extent of inverting its logic. Punk, alternative, grunge, collegerock, emo, goth, indie pop, lo-fi, dream pop, industrial, post-rock, ambience, techno,britpop, hardcore, slowcore: one needn't spend much time skimming reviews orshopping online to experience the dizzying circulation and generally flippant use ofsuch tags. Is it conceivable that each of these corresponds directly to a unique "type"of sound, to a genre that can be defined and limited within a rapidly diversifyingfield? Perhaps. But such a list begins to make evident a certain makeshift quality—one that allows for a facility in naming, in mixing and matching, more than itprovides accurate representation of sounds. Although these terms refer vaguely (notinsignificantly) to notions of social class, industry politics, and aesthetics, they areoperative at least as much as they are responsive, providing an occasion for distinctionvaluable on both ends of commercial and artistic exchange. Like atomic particles,they exist in a paradoxical state of antagonism and interdependence, and allow forvarying degrees of separation from and within an implicit whole.

Rather than attempt to provide a stable and decisive definition of indie rock, Iwant to examine its significance both as a category and within this process ofcategorizing—of endless differentiation—that characterizes the music industry andits consumers. The term, and others like it, positioned as they are at the intersectionof various aesthetic, social, and commercial phenomena, occasion a unique glance

ISSN 0300-7766 (print)/ISSN 1740-1712 (online) © 2005 Taylor & Francis LtdDOI: 10.1080/0300776042000300972

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into the complexities of cultural production. As sociologist Pierre Bourdieu wouldhave us know, judgments and definitions of art have as much to do with social andeconomic power as with "taste," which functions to naturalize and legitimize suchpower; while indie rock (independent rock music) marks the awareness of a newaesthetic, it also satisfies among audiences a desire for social differentiation andsupplies music providers with a tool for exploiting that desire.

In order to preserve something of this complexity, I have divided the present studyinto four parts. The introductory section will explain Bourdieu's concept of culturalcapital and its relevance to indie rock, then provide a brief history and sociolinguisticanalysis of the term itself The second section will examine two aesthetic movementsassociated with the genre: first, that of Lou Barlow, whose "lo-fi" home recordingsbear perhaps a tighter relationship with the name indie than those of any other artist;then, a group of bands, including Sigur Ros and Godspeed You Black Emperor!,whose music is now frequently referred to as post-rock, and whose orchestral, slowlydeveloped compositions stand in marked contrast to Barlow's. In juxtaposing thesetwo aesthetics, it is my intention to show both indie rock's dynamic nature, and,persevering within that, its logic of authenticity and otherness. The final two sectionstake into account the Internet as a medium for the dissemination of indie culture.Specifically, they will examine the rhetoric of two sites: Soyouwanna.com, whoseadvice on how to "fake being an indie rock expert" exposes indie rock as socialdiscourse, or a complex circulation of signs employed in negotiations of social status;and Amazon.com, a site now at the heart of record distribution that implements as amarketing strategy an elaborate system of classification, producing in their appeal tosocial distinction not only endless categories of music, but listeners.

To seek an "other" category of music and name it is to transform it into whatBourdieu refers to as "cultural capital," or that concerning "forms of culturalknowledge, competences or dispositions" (Johnson 7). As Randal Johnson neatlyexplains, cultural capital is "a form of knowledge, an internalized code or a cognitiveacquisition which equips the social agent with empathy towards, appreciation for orcompetence in deciphering cultural relations and cultural artefacts" (7). It is theinternalization of this code, gathered from one's family, social relations, and formalor institutional education, that makes particular works of art meaningful. Possessionof cultural capital can contribute in turn to symbolic capital, or a "degree ofaccumulated prestige, celebrity, consecration or honour ... founded on a dialectic ofknowledge ... and recognition" (7). It is worth noting that, while both of these arerelated to economic capital, neither is reducible to it; one does not have to be rich inorder to exercise social power. We, know from Bourdieu's colleague Michel Foucaultthat "power and knowledge directly imply one another," that "there is no powerrelation without the correlative constitution of a field of knowledge, nor anyknowledge that does not presuppose and constitute at the same time power relations"(27). Masquerading as taste, knowledge can be applied toward the acquisition andmaintenance of social distinctions, which "are never just assertions of equaldifference; they usually entail some claim to authority and presume the inferiority

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of others" (Thornton 10; italics in original). Foucault's and Bourdieu's respectivetheoretical approaches work well together in service of the power/knowledgedialectic; while the first offers a general, nonessentialist framework, a method ofdiscourse analysis that underscores the very constructedness of "truth," the secondallows one to ground power more firmly in social agency, to understand itsconservative function within class structures. In the final analysis, concepts such asindie rock open up vast spaces for the management of power and the manufacturingof identities: purposes far removed from the innocuous pleasures of listening.

That's a mouthful, but worth getting out since it complicates the split between"high art" and "popular" or "mass" culture that has formed the historical basis ofCultural Studies. In the reign of this massive binary, little attention has been given tothe complex processes and hierarchies within popular culture. Bourdieu distinguisheswithin the field of cultural production ("field" meaning a structured but dynamicspace with internal rules and power relations) between the lesser fields of restrictedand large-scale production. Johnson describes the restricted field:

what we normally think of as "high" art, for example "classical" music, the plasticarts, so-called "serious" literature. In this sub-field, the stakes of competitionbetween agents are largely symbolic, involving prestige, consecration and artisticcelebrity. This, as Bourdieu often writes, is production for producers. Economicprofit is normally disavowed (at least by the artists themselves), and the hierarchyof authority is based on different forms of symbolic profit, e.g. a profit ofdisinterestedness, or the profit one has on seeing oneself (or being seen) as one whois not searching for profit. It is in this sense that the cultural field is a universe ofbelief (15)

For consumers of high art, indie rock would likely be relegated to the nebulous and"inferior" world of popular or mass culture. To be sure, the respective codes are milesapart. It seems particularly striking, then, to find upon close examination the sameinternal logic occupying both fields. As with high art in its relation to popular culture,indie rock is part of a dichotomous power structure in which two fields—one (A)having a large audience and producing an abundance of economic capital, the other(B) having a much smaller audience and producing little economic capital—operatein a contentious but symbiotic relationship: while resisting the conventions of A, Bacquires value through its being recognized as "not A." Even without the powerfulsanction of a scholarly institution, indie rock demonstrates the principles and politicsof a "superior" art and applies them within the immense and multifarious domain ofpopular culture. As an elite sect within a larger field, indie rock requires its owncodes, i.e. cultural capital, and therefore can be used to generate and sustain myths ofsocial or intellectual superiority. Obscurity becomes a positive feature, while exclusionis embraced as tbe necessary consequence of tbe majority's lack of "taste." Indie rockenthusiasts (those possessing knowledge of indie rock, or "insiders") comprise asocial formation similar to the intellectuals or the avant-garde of high culture.

The origins of indie rock might be very roughly traced through a lineage of"underground" music dating back to the late sixties.^ Some would turn, for instance.

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to the lo-fi yet highly experimental productions of the Velvet Underground as anedgier and poorly received alternative to the Beatles. Music in this vein, following themore aggressive punk era, became known in the eighties as "college rock," referringto songs too unconventional to receive playtime on anything but low-poweredcollege radio stations and too challenging or subversive for an older or less educatedaudience. Among the hallmarks of this period is R.E.M.—a good example of a bandsiphoned into the current of popular culture, which, Bourdieu explains, must nourishand rejuvenate itself from time to time by incorporating something from therestricted field. By the late eighties, the term "alternative" was well in use, becoming aplatitude of mainstream culture with the explosion of Seattle bands, most notablyPearl Jam and Nirvana, in the early nineties. It is out of this Oedipal tradition, and inrebellion against the all-too-efficient metamorphosis of what was "alternative" intosomething formulaic, that an indie consciousness emerged.

The very name "indie" denotes a more concerted effort to separate the "good"from the "popular"—to be not just an "alternative to," but "independent of." Indierock claims for itself a kind of vacuous existence, independent of the economic andpolitical forces, as well as the value systems and aesthetic criteria, of large-scaleproduction. At the same time, in its manifestation as "indie" {not "independent"),indie rock mystifies itself, its more literal meanings giving way to something bothtrendy and exclusive. For those on the "outside," the link between "indie" and"independent" is never necessarily made, thus preserving its meaning as somethingof an enigma, something other people know. One can begin to see, then, that indierock exists largely as an absence, a nebulous "other," or as a negative value thatacquires meaning from what it opposes. Indie rock is far from a static entity; rather, itis a malleable space filled by discourse and power, whose meaning is always underconstruction by various agents (bands, listeners, labels, critics, etc.) with diverseobjectives.

The simplest, most benign definition of indie rock is that which is not produced bya major record label (AOL Time Warner, Universal, Sony Music, BMG, EMI) or oneof its affiliates. Tbis, of course, defines indie strictly by its relation to the corporateindustry, without reference to intrinsic value, and allows for the term's cross-mediaapplication (i.e. "indie films"). It is in accordance with this definition that MichaelAzerrad limits his investigation of "the American indie underground" to "the bands'stories rather than their music," and restricts those stories "solely to bands who wereon independent labels" (5). For Azerrad, politics rather than aesthetics provides thelocus of value: "Indie labels," he argues, "had to develop obscure artists on agrassroots level, essentially functioning with one or more arms tied behind theirbacks," while the accession of each indie band to a major label meant "an importantconnection to the underground community was invariably lost" (5).

But even such aesthetically neutral definitions carry the assumption that thispolitico-economic freedom, this "independence," exists in a positive correlation withartistic integrity and aesthetic quality: "Virtually every band," Azerrad adds, "didtheir best and most influential work during their indie years" (5). Some would.


therefore, conceive of indie rock as that, in any period, which is truly original orcutting-edge, or, perhaps more importantly, which can be directly opposed with themainstream—a binary logic seriously complicated by David Hesmondhaigh, whocounsels caution "in assuming that oppositional or conformist institutional politicslead to correspondingly oppositional or conformist textual forms" (56).

From here, definitions of indie rock become problematically subjective. Dependingon which bands one comes to associate witb the genre—through which portal oneenters the indie "scene"—specific conventions are likely to be recognized andanticipated. That is to say, particular notions of "what is indie" are closely bound topersonal experience, as well as age and social class. My own exposure to indie rock,for instance, through a rather incestuous group of musicians (Will Oldham, a.k.a.Palace, Bonny Prince Billie; the Silver Jews; Smog; Sebadoh) based largely inLouisville and affiliated with Chicago's Drag City label bas lent the term a particularaesthetic weight: I have come to associate "indie" with a kind of revisionary folkmovement—something in the "bad voice" tradition of Bob Dylan and Neil Young,though less politically charged and more self-deprecating, attaining through lyricaldepth and minimal production a sound that is conscientiously "backwoods" or"bedroom." Further characteristics of these indie pioneers include a sublimation ofthe artist's identity through the extensive use of personae (evident especially inOldham's case, with his customary and self-mystifying name changes), and areconceptualizing of the album as an autonomous and thematic text or narrative,rather than simply a collection of songs gathered to meet the demands of radio orlinked only by the time and place of their production. Most of this is consistent withCotten Seiler's description of "the Louisville Sound," which "privileges an ethic ofrestraint in order to create musical space" (196; italics in original), and is intended"for 'bedroom contemplation' rather than dance-floor abandon" (199). Yet it wasnot until I began associating tbe terms "indie rock" and "indie folk" with this musicthat the idea of something coherent, something genuinely new, solidified.

As the sometimes striking differences, between narratives—Hesmondhalgh's andSeiler's, Azzerad's and my own—illustrate, particular understandings of an artisticgenre are shaped by the conditions of one's own experience, or, more precisely, whatBourdieu refers to as "habitus": "a set of dispositions which generates practices andperceptions" and "is the result of a long process of inculcation, beginning in earlychildhood, which becomes a 'second sense' or a second nature" (Johnson 5). Habitusis Bourdieu's way of accounting for personal agency without overestimating itsfreedom from objective social conditions. While one's habitus contributes to tbestructuring of a field, it is in turn already structured by the long and often informalprocesses of social education. My own choices, decisions, and values regarding whatconstitutes good music—however "unusual" or "unpredictable" they may be—arethemselves conditioned by my upbringing, various relations, and socioeconomicstatus. I maybe, for instance, part ofthe "more privileged strata of American youth,who favored cerebral, ironic musicians like Liz Phair, Pavement, and PalaceBrothers," and who, Azerrad argues, replaced "the traditionally working-class

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emphasis on artisanal values like chops, speed, and power" (499). While indie rockprovides concrete and individual expression, certain values or interests—such as themotivation toward something "pure," something substantial that might bediscovered breathing below the hi-tech manipulations of large-scale production—may be shared by a group in general, as a kind of class habitus. Preexisting structuresand needs draw individuals to certain kinds of music, from which a specific code maybe learned: disarmed at first by the break from established criteria, the listener isslowly educated toward new ways of listening, and comes to understand that thecriteria for mainstream (radio-friendly) and indie music are mutually exclusive.Because indie rock gains its appeal through its defiance of mainstream conventions,because it does not meet the protocols for radio or music television (whose audiencelacks the necessary cultural capital), it cannot achieve a mass following. Thus indieenthusiasts turn to symbolic value, defending what they like as "too good" for radio,too innovative and challenging to interest those blasting down the highway. Theybecome the scholars and conservators of "good" music.

Pursuing the Indie Aesthetic

Lou Barlow and his Home Recordings

In 1989, after being kicked out of Dinosaur Jr. by front man J Mascis, Lou Barlowturned his fliU attention to the "home recordings" he had begun releasing under thename Sebadoh two years previously. By the mid-nineties. Barlow's work (along withthat of fellow band members Eric Gaffney and Jason Lowenstein) had become acentral part of the indie movement. While the majority of Sebadoh albums feature afull band. Barlow has released a number of super-stripped-down, "lo-fi" recordingsunder various names, including Sebadoh (The Freed Weed), Sentridoh (Losing Losersand Winning Losers), Lou Barlow and Friends {Another Collection of HomeRecordings), The Folk Implosion (a collaborative effort with John Davis, includingTake a Look Inside and Dare to Be Surprised), and the more recent Loobiecore songsavailable online. Though a generation removed from those bands comprisingAzzerad's indie nucleus. Barlow and his recordings bear a singularly tight relationshipwith the word "indie" itself In reviews as well as biographical sketches, the two areobligatorily aligned, and thus serve to define one another in a reciprocal and self-contained structure of meaning: "indie rock's original sensitive singer-songwriter anda revered figure of the 9O's indie scene" one online source calls Barlow (Andrewhy),as another posits that "Back in the mid-'90s, no one more fiilly embodied theconfiicted and cantankerous spirit of that era's indie rock scene than Barlow and hisband Sebadoh" (Reger). Barlow's status as indie representative, however, has much todo with his own (albeit cynical) showcasing ofthe word "indie" as a textual practice.A 1991 Sebadoh EP, for instance, fiaunts the title Gimme Indie Rock, while the"Commercial" at the beginning of Losing Losers speaks (with equal irony) of "trueindie folk trend setting." Emerging onto the scene at a time when the indie label was


ripe for application, Barlow manages to assimilate it into his work as a narrative ofthe artist's strained and self-conscious relationship with the classifying tendencies ofconsumer culture.

In the face of such threats, and by challenging the worth of hi-tech recordingequipment and studio engineering, Barlow offers the attractive facade of a "pure"listening experience—an unadulterated exchange between artist and listener. Hismuch-dramatized break with Mascis (narrated, in addition to Barlow's frequent verbalassaults, by Sebadoh's "Asshole" and "Freed Pig"), his response of doing his "ownthing" after being silenced (see Azerrad 346-75), set the stage for his recordings assomething more true, something "indier" than Dinosaur Jr. and other forerunners ofthe genre. Even the discrepancies between Barlow's own projects—songs such as "BrandNew Love," "New Worship," and "Freed Pig" appear in duplicate, both with fuU instru-mentation and, on solo projects, in stripped-down acoustic versions—convey that truer,more naked versions of songs exist, that layers of instrumentation can be peeled away tolocate an essence. With the visual aid of a crudely homemade cover art, the distinctionbetween substance and production is heightened, and the listener is encouraged tobelieve that, on these records, the first is caught in an unusually exposed state.

These characteristics are part of indie rock's DIY (Do-It-Yourself) ethic, which,Azzerad explains, performs the valuable function of demystifying the record-makingprocess as that belonging exclusively to and within the invisible space of majorcorporations (6, 497). But, as the proudly modest title Another Collection of HomeRecordings suggests, there is value—indeed, a commodity fetishism—induced by theidea that these songs were in fact recorded at home, that they exist apart from theusual circumstances of production. One consumer writes: "when he was not playingwith j mascus he was in his bed room trying to get his own identity down and here itis. you also get some early versions of some sebadoh stuff to. some ofthe music mayget a little annoying at times but to really appreciate a album like this you have toknow that he was not in a good place at the time" (Pike; errors in original). Not onlyis it determined unfair to criticize the recordings without bearing in mind thecircumstances of production; those circumstances are in fact what make the albumsomething to be appreciated. Because it exists in domestic rather than professional orcommercial space, one supposes, it is nearer the truth:

Rarely do performers treat their listeners to a look "behind the curtain" of theircreativity, here Barlow tears it down and burns it, gets your attention and says "thisis how i'm feeling! this is the truth!"' and pulls it off with an undeniable air ofcarelessness that belies the songwriting genius on display. Songs such as "Cause forCelebration", "Old Wife Cried" and "Beyond the Barbwire"" are beautiful folkishsongs with integrity and gravity, they rub up against "I Feel Good About Me", "Tryto Get What You Want" and "Take an Asprin" which are throw away ditties withjust as much integrity and gravity. As such this is an album where everyone of the43 tracks contributes to the whole and there is not (in my opinion) a dull momentin its entire 73 minuite running time. Essential listening for anyone who wants tohear how close to mental breakdown an artist can get to produce a masterpiece ofself-expression. (Gonk; errors in original)

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The suggestion here is that, while most recordings conceal the artist. Barlow'sdispense with persona altogether. The artist is exposed for us, caught naked in the actof his creation. Within this sacred space, all aesthetic forms attain equal value: the"throw away ditty" has in the end as much "integrity and gravity" as the "beautifulfolkish song." Both derive their worth, it seems, through the (pure) context of theirproduction.

Akin to Sebadoh's The Freed Weed, Losing Losers contains more than 40 diminutivetracks—Barlow's patented four-string acoustic guitars, choppy rhythms, and delicatevocals interspersed with "random" bits of noise—all crudely spliced into more thanan hour's worth of "lo-fi" home recording. A destructive impulse seems to coexistwith that of creation, rarely allowing songs to mature beyond a couple of minutes ("Ihave to tear up everything I find," sings Barlow, before "Soul Mate" ruptures intochaos), and the demarcations between actual "songs" and just "messing around" areblurred throughout. Thus, the album constantly refers back to itself as a recording—acharacteristic strangely at odds with the previously stated notion of a "pure" artisticexchange, and a contradiction that may be attributed to the inverted logic of therestricted field. From the indie perspective, mainstream production is understood asone that masks, one that washes over a lack of suhstance or artistic creativity,producing instead through technology and commercially proven formulae thesemblance of a legitimate song. "There's very few bands on the radio who haven'tbeen shaped by a producer," a regretful Barlow tells Uno Mas. "Even Nevermind wasa totally produced record. That's just the way it is" (DeWinter). Therefore, when onehears the crude "makings" of the song—the hiss, the pressing of buttons, technicalglitches, distortion—one comes to trust it as both honest and real, or to read in itsimperfections a kind of blue-collar integrity. In the strangest of ironies, the mostdirect evidence of production connotes its absence, and a claim for artistic distinctionis forwarded through an aesthetics of working-class deprivation.

All of this would seem to fit Bourdieu's characterization of high rather thanpopular art. Like Bourdieu's museum, in which "juxtaposed works tacitly demandattention to form rather than function, technique rather than theme" ("Aristocracy"438), indie rock supplies a space in which artworks seem to exist outside theconditions of their production, and a bastion from which the cultured few may fendoff the multitude. The mainstream for indie rock is analogous to Bourdieu's popularculture, practiced by those who "chiefiy expect representations and the conventionswhich govern them to allow them to believe 'naively' in the things represented"("Distinction" 434-35). The fan of mainstream music, then, bases his choices on adifferent set of values: wanting something, perhaps, that fills out those woofers—thatputs his stereo to good use—rather than a makeshift production; or somethinginconspicuous, to be enjoyed during other activities, in bits and pieces, here andthere, rather than as an end in itself; or something that induces a certain emotion,rather than challenges or surprises the intellect.

Barlow stands openly opposed to such banality, at least on the part of musicians: "Ihave no problems with people being rock stars. It's just that I get sick of all these


treadmill popular bands that keep churning out. I'm really bitter about people likethat" (Emerick). Less than shy in his condemnation of the music scene. Barlow iscareful to implicate himself As with many indie artists, self-deprecation—a refusal to(openly) take his work too seriously—becomes a means to authenticity: "The literaryand artistic world is so ordered," Bourdieu explains, "that those who enter it have aninterest in disinterestedness" {Field 40). "Commercial," the first track on LosingLosers, sets a disinterested tone for the entire record. After several disorientingseconds of a curious snarling noise. Barlow's sluggish, pitch-altered voice begins:

Compiled from truly inferior tapes of stupid self-involvement, now on display foryour dismissal or gradual acceptance. [Echo-effect] Losers. One solid circle ofSebadoh's Sentridoh [snarl]. Sentridoh [snarl]. Sentridoh [snarl]. Sentridoh[snarl]. Over 40 songs of good manipulation or evil sincerity, shirking in itspresence an undeniable specter of true indie-folk trend setting [noise]. Trend-setting [noise]. [Guitar noodling. Noise.] [Echo-effect] Losers [noise]. One solidcircle of Sebadoh's Sentridoh. [Echo-effect] Losers. Make its downstroke stroke youdown. Make you achieve downmind.

In some ways a striking example of postmodernity, "Commercial" irrevocablyobscures the boundaries between advertising and art; like the opening to They MightBe Giants'Flood, "Theme from Flood" ("Why is the world in love again? Why are wemarching hand in hand? Why are the ocean levels rising up? It's a brand new record,for 1990, They Might Be Giants' brand new album ... Floooood!"), it functions asboth self-deprecating humor and a parody of advertising in general. Bourdieu states,

[B]reaks with the most orthodox works ofthe past often take the form of parody....In this case, the newcomers "get beyond" the dominant mode of thought andexpression not by explicitly denouncing it but by repeating and reproducing it in asociologically non-congruent context, which has the effect of rendering itincongruous or even absurd, simply by making it perceptible as the arbitraryconvention it is (Field 31).

The overly dramatic echo effect and constant, brain-numbing repetition recall theworst in radio advertising. In this way. Barlow mocks the world of "hype" whiledownplaying his own "inferior," "stupid" creation as something that, at best, mightbe "accepted." On the other hand. Barlow's "Commercial," like any, has its morelatent and literal intentions; it functions, that is, not just to parody other commercialsbut to advertise Barlow's work as something original and self-contained. Theinventive vocabulary and peculiar syntax function as a kind of mock aesthetic,connecting one project to the next in the image ofa "solid circle," and infusing themin the concluding imperatives with a mysterious yet functional sense of value. Unlikethe festive, cheesy chorus that kicks off Flood, the tone of "Commercial" is dark andsniveling ("snottiness" is often considered a feature of indie rock). Its means of"downstroke" to induce a state of "downmind" suggest something less thanuplifting—something below the surface, perhaps. With the inclusion of its own"commercial," Losing Losers deepens its illusion of autonomy. Certainly Barlow'swork meets many of the criteria set forth by Bourdieu for tbe "open work," which

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calls attention to its own form (lo-fi) rather than function, and excludes the "naive"listener because of its "refusal to recognize any necessity other than that inscribed inthe specific tradition of the artistic discipline in question" ("Distinction" 433). Bypresenting something that is seemingly outside the economic and commercial fields,and resisting previous conventions. Barlow attempts to be "entirely master of hisproduct" (433).

What Is Post-Rock?

Cultural capital can cease to have value as it becomes increasingly accessible. For thisreason, lest it be diffused into the mainstream, indie rock must perpetually seek outnew artists, records, and sounds: toward the old ends of social distinction newcurrencies must be forged. For indie rock enthusiasts, this means a continuing effortto keep abreast of current developments, to remain one step ahead of what others arelistening to or talking about. For artists, this means coping with a fickle audiencewhose values are often at odds with their own artistic and economic goals; while mostartists hope to reach a larger audience and generate more profit, their listeners arepoised to attack or abandon at the slightest detection of "seUing out"—a phrasepivotal to preserving the myth of authenticity, which it defines in opposition to thecommercially infiuenced. The lifespan for indie authenticity can be brutally short. Afew bands, like the Velvet Underground, may by virtue of a historically securedmarginality (only after their disbandment did the VU enjoy much critical esteem)become mainstays of indie culture. More typically, however, the cultural value of aparticular artist decreases with time; artists may be dismissed as "sell-outs" not onlywhen they sell their tunes to corporate advertisers, but if they jump to a major recordlabel, or simply amass a large audience. In aesthetic terms, selling out can meanproducing music—i.e. the "pop single"—that assumes a form pliable to popularmedia, or ceasing to reinvent one's self and tbereby cballenge the expectations of anestablished fan-base. Failure to change, like change itself, can be costly.

Lou Barlow, for one, has seen better days in terms of current indie status. "[I]s itpossible," one reviewer laments in reference to Barlow's dwindling concertattendance, "that Lou Barlow has now become irrelevant?" (Andrewhy). Barlow'sreincarnation as the New Folk Implosion—a former side project, whose hip hop-influenced "Natural One" became, ironically, his only charted single—is indicative ofa struggle to negotiate between confiicting fields of production, or the diametricallyopposed values of indie rock and popular music. Straining for one audience'sattention while losing that of another. Barlow currently occupies a dubious and ill-defined space in rock music:

I feel like I spent years crafting really difficult music and now that I've just turned30 I'm much more into the idea of inviting people into my music rather than tryingto scare them away. There's something in me now that wants to hit a middleground. {DeWinter)


Other indie artists of Barlow's generation, such as Pavement's Steven Malkmus andWilco's Jeff Tweedy (formerly of Uncle Tupelo), find themselves after some durationas indie darlings undergoing similar (perhaps more successful) negotiations, theirmusical identities changing as they finagle the boundaries of restrictive and large-scale production, between popular success and indie appeal.

In the meantime a new wave of music—some are calling it "post-rock"—isdisplacing them at the core of indie culture. Sigur Ros, Dirty Three, Mogwai, andGodspeed You Black Emperor! are among bands providing indie rock with a newaesthetic, and thus cultural capital, for the maintenance of its social functions. Inmany ways this musical development is an inversion of what preceded it. Rather thandownplaying its artistic value, or immersing itself in irony, post-rock assumes aloftiness associated with high art; through a complex of signifiers, it dissociates itselffrom the mundane and the trivial, securing instead a cultural value predicated onexoticism and grandeur. To begin with, these bands are geograpbically marginal—from Iceland, Australia, Scotland, and Canada, respectively—and thereby dislocatedfrom the British-American rock tradition. As with other types of music—forexample, country and rap—regional identification contributes in indie rock to theformation of meaning and value. Unlike these others, however, which boast firmroots in centralized locations (Nashville; East/West Coast), indie rock is perpetuallyin search of an artistic "elsewhere"; from Athens to Seattle, from the unlikely"factory-belt" origins (Belleville, Illinois) of Uncle Tupelo to Glasgow, indie fans arequick to drop one "scene" in pursuit of the next.

Post-rock has a fuller, more richly embodied sound than the previous lo-fi/minimalist ethos of indie rock would allow. This is accomplished in a number ofways, including: (1) larger bands—Godspeed bas nine members, as does Sigur Roswitb tbeir accompanying string section; (2) instrumentation and effects—Sigur Rosoften employs a bow on the guitar for a full, ambient sound, while Godspeed enrichestheirs with thickly distorted amplification and dual percussionists; and (3) avid use ofmultitrack recording—even three-piece ensemble Dirty Three tends to layer theviolin to this effect, while others embellish their core instrumentation with vibes,additional vocals, and environmental soundscapes (TVs, street-corner preachers,etc.). Godspeed and Sigur Ros represent extremes of two post-rock trajectories—themilitant and the ethereal—which may be traced back, respectively, to earlier bandslike Slint and Slowdive. While Sigur Ros aspires toward a self-contained,transcendental beauty. Godspeed grounds its music in political rants and urbanfamiliarities, maximizing the snare drum to create a sound at once threatening andmajestic. Both bands, however, along with Mogwai and Dirty Three, achieve anintensity through the gradual buildup of instrumentation and rhythmic drivealtogether absent in Barlow's version of indie.

Post-rock music aims for depth and drama, and demands long, unbroken periodsof listening to be rewarding. In contrast to tbe short, raw, rather preclusive tunes ofthe previous generation, post-rock bands very patiently elaborate on a simple,monotonous strain, thus establisbing tbe "song" as something that slowly develops.

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Whereas Barlow's songs usually fall within a one- to three-minute range, post-rockcompositions are rarely shorter than five minutes, often continuing for more thanten. Godspeed in particular has reconceptualized the song and the album, releasingthree to five tracks per LP, with each (15- to 20-minute) piece divided, as in classicalmusic, into several movements; the four tracks on lift yr. skinny fists like antennas toheaven!, for instance, are grafted on the inside sleeve as a continuum of nineteenseparately named parts. Classical instruments, particularly strings but winds too, belpmake the argument for post-rock as high art, imbuing the musicians with a dignifiedorchestral aura rather than the fiashier, more juvenile one of a rock band. Thoughthey still perform the awkward venues characteristic of indie rock (I saw Mogwai in abowling alley), post-rock bands are at home in small, seated, visually directivestructures such as old theaters; the crowd tendency is to remain seated and becomeabsorbed rather than actively involved (recently, a friend of mine expressed hiswonder at the "quiet appreciativeness" ofa Sigur Ros audience).

Everything about post-rock suggests a renewed seriousness—a restoration ofgrandeur, beauty, and intensity to what had retreated into a fiatter, more self-refiexiveform of expression. More so than ever, post-rock seeks and creates the impression ofautonomy, either by skirting exterior systems of meaning, as does Sigur Ros, or byabsorbing the worldly into a private mythos, as evident in Godspeed. The albumdesigns are consistent with this purpose: the dearth of band photos, indeed of anyhuman presence, the substitution of elaborate artwork for photography, serve tocontain the album as other-worldly, as a fictional universe unto itself. The cover ofSigur Ros's Agaetis Byrjun, for example, features an embryonic alien with angel'swings. This stark representation, printed in silver on an otherwise plain black surface,lifts the album—something at once new, strange, and transcendent—directly out ofits earthly context, or the circumstances of its production. Similarly, theimpressionistic cover art of Dirty Three guitarist Mick Turner, such as his stoicmermaid on the cover of Ocean Songs, positions the album witbin an alternative,fairytale-like universe.

Post-rock's aversion to lyrics, in addition to its visual presentation, helps secure itsotherness, or to heighten and purify its artistic status. With only some minorexceptions, all the bands mentioned here are determinedly instrumental: Dirty Threeuses no vocals at all; Godspeed sometimes integrates the speaking voices of others—such as an elderly man's nostalgic memories of Goney Island on "Murray Ostril:'...they don't sleep anymore on the beach'" (skinny fists)—within their elaboratecompositions, and have abandoned even this practice on their latest effort, YanquiU.X.O.; and Mogwai, on their handful of vocalized tracks, either mumble or whispertheir lyrics, saturate them with effect, or, in the case of "Dial: Revenge," sing inWelsh. Sigur Ros's invention of a "nonsense language" on the cryptically titled ()allows their vocals to function, as one band member offered on HBO's Reverb,like another instrument. Yet the invented language, because it mimics syllabicarticulation (unlike, say, a chant), communicates more as hidden meaning—as a kindof celestial mystery—than mere gibberish or instrumentation; dubbed "Hopelandic,"


it maintains the impression of a "real" language, a verbal structure governed by itsown rules and conventions whose meaning may potentially be deciphered. Given itsGermanic likeness and the relative ease with which it is pronounced and reproducedon stage, one can hardly be surprised that some early listeners presumed the languageIcelandic, the band's native tongue and tbe language used on previous records. Theprocess of signification, it would appear, is abstracted or displaced rather thanblocked; the detached sign mystifies and isolates the artistic product, as within thevacant space confined by parentheses.

Sucb attention to how tbings are represented, not just what is represented,distinguishes post-rock from what Bourdieu considers popular art. A list of albumand song titles, in addition to those already mentioned, reveals a loftinesscharacteristic of, and allusive to, distinguished literature: She Has No StringsApollo, Whatever You Love You Are (Dirty Three); He Has Left Us Alone But Shafts ofLight Sometimes Grace the Gorners of Our Rooms, "Born Into Trouble as the Sparks FlyUpward" (A Silver Mt. Zion, GYBE! offshoot); "ithica 27 f 9," "A Cheery Wave fromStranded Youngsters" (Mogwai). A far cry from the short, playful names typical ofnineties indie rock—for example, Sebadoh's "Bakesale," Pavement's "WoweeZowee"—these titles, at the cost of pretension, tap in to a mythic and literaryheritage for the cultural value associated with it. When not avoided altogether,language is lifted from ordinary discourse into an exalted, experimental form.

For Godspeed, language becomes the source of a political identity and privatemyth. Along with images of radio towers, helicopters, and falling bombs, spoken andwritten texts work thematically toward a representation of the world as fallen andcorrupt. At the beginning of their first LP, ^ f l # ° ° , a sobering, deeply mascuhnevoice recites a prophecy of destruction, thick with images of industrial fallout, andthus sets in motion the apocalyptic vision that pervades all of Godspeed's work:

The car is on fire, and there's no driver at the wheel. And the sewers are allmuddied with a thousand lonely suicides. And a dark wind blows. The governmentis corrupt, and we're on so many drugs with the radio on and the curtains drawn.We are trapped in the belly of this horrible machine, and the machine is bleeding todeath.

A street fanatic, wben asked on Godspeed's Slow Riot for New Zero Kanada EP if bebelieves "things are gonna get better before they get worse," is equally pessimistic:"No way, things are just gonna get worse and keep on getting worse ... we're justbasically in a hopeless situation as it stands." A sinister, manipulative governmentand major corporate industries are exposed as the primary culprits. The Slow Riotdisc wears the government notice "Operation Handcuff," warning drug dealers that"all numbers, along with the date and time dialed from this payphone using coin,credit card, and collect are recorded automatically and subject to subpoena by lawenforcement officials." Similarly, tbe inside sleeve of Yanqui U.X.O. shows adocument titled "U.S. Investigations Services Inc." with the prompt "Identifysomeone you know is not trustworthy. Explain how you have reached thatconclusion." On the back a sketcbed diagram traces connections between major

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record labels and arms manufacturers. Godspeed's (rather Foucauldian) contemptfor a pervasive, institutional power that violates the individual and makes a businessof classifying delinquents is extended, then, to the corporate end of popular music.

In an open letter published by brainwashed.com—a site providing "informationon a small number of bands," who "either had a lousy idol worshipping fan site, acorporate site which ignored a band's career outside of tbe label or no web site at all"(error in original)—Godspeed's Efrim, in response to what he feels was amisrepresentation of his band following an interview, condemns the "wholeridiculous industry which does not bend or compromise, but swallows, appropriates,destroys." Defending a previous critique of Radiohead, a band contracted to GapitolRecords (subsidiary of EMI) that some would include in the post-rock genre, hereminds us they "are owned, part and parcel, by a gigantic multinational corpora-tion, and their critique of global corporatism is tainted by that one harsh reality."Mass-circulated, corporately owned products are by their very nature corrupt,whereas the indie product (though even here Efrim is skeptical) has the potential tofunction as a site of truth and resistance. Yet these rather direct criticisms areconfiated with the more poeticized rhetoric of "this cruel cruel world." As onGodspeed's records, Efrim's text is set apart (though to a lesser extent) from ordinaryprose; omitting periods and capital letters, full of ellipses, crossed-out, reinvented("God's pee"), and jumbled together, the language becomes one of urgency, a collageof anxieties with no decisive answers, and the tissue that connects one Godspeedproject to the next.

The relationship between politics and art is admittedly problematic for Godspeed.While the two discourses seem to coexist within their work, they are sometimesconsciously held at arm's length: "u.x.o. is unexploded ordnance is landmines iscluster bombs, yanqui is post-colonial imperialism is international police state ismultinational corporate oligarchy, godspeed you! black emperor is complicit is guiltyis resisting, the new album is just music" ("Yanqui U.X.O"). One hears in theseparadoxical lines both an echo of W. H. Auden's post hoc conviction that "poetrymakes nothing happen," and a deep sense of obligation to go on trying. Writes Efrimin his letter:

.. .we've thrown these records into the ocean like so many hopeless transmissions,praying and hoping that some people would get the point, the simple simple simplepoint; that the world we live in is lost, violent, and obscene, that the relations wehave with each other and ourselves are mostly alienated, that together we need tobegin figuring out how to fix ourselves, our communities, our world.

While in their political commentaries Godspeed relegate their efforts to what must bea lost cause, they retain in their poetry and artwork a constant element of hope:"more awkward pirouettes in the general direction of Hope and Joy," begin the linernotes for skinny fists, while those for Yanqui U.X.O. conclude pleadingly, "&hopestill, a little resistance always maybe stubborntiny light vs. clustering darknessforeverok?"


Post-rock is not postmodern. Rather, it assumes a more traditional role in whichart becomes a privatized sphere of reality, seen in opposition to a world debased bycommon values. Political or apolitical, post-rock artists, like the literary Modernists,endeavor toward alternative systems of meaning, seeking unity through myth andsymbol in the face of disrepair. Within these richly symbolic, highly politicizednarratives the argument for indie authenticity is preserved.

Indie Rock as Social Discourse: Soyouwanna.com

Soyouwanna.com (SYW) is an Internet site that gives advice, in the form ofinstruction or self-help manuals, to customers (they have a "store," of course) on awide and disparate range of topics. From religious conversion to curing a hangover,SYW promises candid information that may otherwise be elusive—in its own words,an end to "the wild goose chase," or "life, explained." The overtly familiar namecapitalizes on what has since become a prevalent marketing theme (now employed,for instance, by Amazon.com), and is perhaps rooted in the Byrds' "So YouWanna Be a Rock 'n' Roll Star" (repopularized by Tom Petty), whose lyrics coachtheir young listener unrealistically toward a life of glamor and fame. OneSYW topic—"Soyouwanna Fake Being an Indie Rock Expert?"—allows us towitness the existence of indie rock as a field of knowledge and to experienceits value as social discourse—things wholly estranged from the pleasures oflistening.

The title alone is revealing. Formulated in such a way as to suggest that help hasalready been requested—as if it is merely responding to another's plea for change—itestablishes SYW's dual ethos of factual knowledge and social savvy. The sitefunctions, therefore, as an exchange of information, from the learned to theunlearned, under the assumption that the latter can benefit or be improved upon insome way. Specifically of value here is "expertise," or at least the presentation ofexpertise: one wants to convince others that one possesses knowledge. Yet the goal, aspresented, is not to "be" an indie rock expert, but to "fake" it. On the one hand, ifknowledge of indie rock is worth "faking," then it obviously has a value beyond theindividual; rather than providing some kind of internal satisfaction, such as helpingone appreciate the music, it performs a purely social function. On the other hand,envisioning the objective as a "ruse" allows one to remain, or to feel that oneremains, outside the circle at hand. SYW offers not just a chance to "fit in" with theindie experts, but to "one up" them—to play the game with a certain detachmentand irony. The author, who playfully ridicules the artificiality of the indie communitywhile conscientiously schooling the neophyte, shares Lou Barlow's need to somehowget outside of indie rock, to ridicule it even, in order to establisb a legitimate placewithin. After all, he is an expert. By framing the goal as "faking" rather than "being,"SYW allows their "students" to feel they are preserving an authentic identity whileexposing the fraudulence of others. They offer strategies, that is, in the struggle forsocial position.

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The site takes for granted that "real" indie rock experts exist as an entity that canbe distinguished from counterfeits. Such a distinction, however, proves impossible tosustain. The lines between a "true" indie rock expert and a dilettante or "poseur" are,in the end, and despite the author's intentions, sufficiently confused to expose theabsence of any authentic referent: either the student has received an authentic "indie"education and become one of the others, or the others are "fakers" themselves. Thefirst paragraph operates as a typical sales-pitch, dictating how the customer feels:

You're sick of digesting mainstream, overproduced drivel from the likes of MTVand the local "be-caller-100" pop station. You'd like to be edgier and more"underground"—or at least you'd like to pretend you're both those things. Theonly trouble is, you don't know where to begin. Being in-the-know aboutindependent rock music—a.k.a. "indie rock"—can seem like an overwhelmingtask. Indie fans often come across as if they belong to some sort of secret society,frowning upon all those poor, ignorant souls who just don't "get it" when it comesto music. Lies. We're here to tell you that you too can be a hipster. By learning thebasics of what the indie phenomenon is all about, you should be well on your wayto passing yourself off as a die-hard fan. ("Soyouwanna")

Already a string of contradictions obscures the actual difference between authenticityand "faking," and leaves one confused as to what value, if any, the author ascribes toindie rock. Tbe first sentence credits indie rock by ridiculing the "overproduceddrivel" it rebels against, and suggests a lack of agency ("digesting") on the part ofthose who consume such drivel. "Indie fans" are at this point acknowledged as a realentity, though satirized for their snobbery—their attempt to make "taste" seemnatural and legitimate. The targeted audience here is the "victim" of socialdistinction—the person lacking in cultural capital, who has suffered the condescen-sion of those who possess it. To its credit, the site recognizes what Ortega y Gassetsays of high art—that indie rock has "the sociological power of obliging [tbe mass] tosee themselves as they are, as the 'common people,' a mere ingredient among othersin the social structure" (355-56). Though offering a way to "blend," the authorupholds authenticity as a truth. The one-word response "Lies," however, blows tbecover of tbere being any such "secret society," suggesting that anyone with the rightapproach can "be a hipster" (italics added). Then, just as quickly, the language shiftsback to tbe concept of "passing yourself off," once again designating the student asinauthentic.

What then follows is a crash course in rules of conversation and appearance,divided into five parts: (1) "Look the Part"; (2) "Know Some ofthe History"; (3)"Become Familiar with Current Indie Rock Bands and Labels"; (4) "Learn to Talk tbeTalk"; (5) "Complete the Ruse." Each of these sections maintains a distinctionbetween appearance and reality, not only as the difference between fakers and realexperts, but as a structuring principle within the social discourse of indie rock itself"As a rule," the site informs us, "money is antithetical to indie rock." While thestudent may or may not have money (most indie enthusiasts, I would venture, arewhite, middle-class, and college educated), it is important to keep up the appearanceof destitution: "Got a nice car? Good. Lose it. If you want to be indie rock you can't


drive a car that has fewer than 100,000 miles on the odometer and had an originalsticker price of more than $20K" (emphasis in original). Regarding personalappearance and hygiene,

.. .you might want to cut back on the frequency with which you wash your hair.The "bedhead" look is too obvious, but a modified bedhead with a greasy sheen toit will have you blending right in with the crowd at the indie rock show.

And clothes:

An old undersized T-shirt is a safe bet, but it should be some vibrant colorWhite is gauche, and black is too glamorous Generally speaking, the shirt shouldlook like something you would find at a thrift store, but it shouldn't look like youbought it at a thrift store.

In otber words, tbe "look," which is actually created through a rigorous andmeticulous process of selection and in terms of its power to communicate, must inthe end be naturalized; the indie-rocker must appear not only as lacking in materialresources, but also as one who does not much care about his personal appearance,who has not given it much thought. As with Barlow's music, everything must beoutwardly downplayed—so carefully constructed as to seem not constructed andtherefore "pure." Retailers like Hot Topic market this value, selling not only obscureband sbirts but "distressed" or "pre-used" ones; a new obscure band T-shirt is still"wannabe." Both producers and consumers of indie rock must present themselves asoutside the economic field. The intent is not merely to be recognized as "indie," butto communicate to the non-indie world that you are part of something, or that youknow about something (here a hopelessly enigmatic band T-shirt is helpful), whichthey are unable to identify.

The indie community itself may well read through this "disguise" (they are doingthe same thing—it is recognized as a fashion), but tbe sublimation of intention is partof the code, and plays a role in becoming accepted. To an extent, the "ruse" isintended to be recognized; whether another "buys into" it or not is irrelevant.Legitimacy ("indie cred," SYW calls it) is establisbed by bow well one operates withinthe code while "coming off' natural. Unlike more "glamorous" fashion statements,the ideal indie rock shirt makes the wearer look either too economically deprived toafford anything else, or too oblivious to notice. One is not "busted" by the discoverythat the shirt is in fact a conscious decision (it always is), but, rather, if it "seems" likeone—if it speaks too openly of intention. Within the circle, the appearance ofauthenticity, more than authenticity itself, is crucial: the message within the groupis not "I have to buy my clotbes second-hand," but "my clotbes appear to besecond-hand."

All of this suggests that there is in fact a tight "circle" or "group," in which peopleare accepted, and from which others are excluded. More realistically, the indie rockscene is an arena of competition between individuals, a grappling to secure a privatespace that others must respect but cannot share. The idea of ownership, by way ofknowledge and experience, is prevalent. To know of an obscure band is to claim

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rights as its discoverer; one who introduces bands to others gets position on them.Similarly, to have attended a rare concert—of a band, perhaps, no longer together, orin a place they will no longer play—is to accumulate capital made valuable by itsinaccessibility to others. To say "I knew first," or "I was there then," is to lock one'spossession in a spatial and historical vacuum. But the telling of such an experience,more than the experience itself, becomes the space in which power is exercised. "Youwere at arguably THE coolest show of the '90s," SYW commends its reader after amock conversational piece: "You not only knew about that tour, but you were there."To possess the unpossessable is to claim a status that cannot be infiltrated by others,particularly those being told about it. The indie world is not so much a community ofshared interests (though it may uphold this appearance for those "outside") as abattleground for consumer property rights. Nonetheless, a degree of "fitting in" isnecessary for credibility, and the codes of communication must be honored.

SYW attempts to provide its readers with the key to such codes. Indie rock, itreveals, is a discourse with its own logic and established tropes. The structure of thislogic depends largely on categorical binaries: old/new, bad/good, popular/obscure,etc. Success, in the financial and commercial sense, generally lowers the value of themusic being discussed. "You know the drill," the site states, referring to anunderstanding that an indie label that has become "moderately successful" is "inmany respects ... yesterday's news." Indie rock thus exercises the kind of "loser wins"mentality Bourdieu ascribes to tbe "autonomous" sector of cultural production, a"systematic inversion of the fundamental principles of all ordinary economies" that"excludes the pursuit of profit" and "condemns honours and temporal greatness"(Field 39). Bands, record labels, and listeners accrue symbolic value by divorcingthemselves, or being divorced, from standards of popularity and economic success.SYW takes this principle to its extreme: "Know that the coolest indie rock band issomeone nobody bas heard of and is on a label that doesn't even exist yet." Another'sreferences, the author explains, can be trumped by the simple cliche, "Yeah, their oldstuff is better." The more known something becomes, the inverted logic goes, the lessinteresting it is. Indie rock becomes valuable largely in its manifestation as theabsence of what "is": "it is easier to define indie rock by what it isn't. It isn'tsuccessful, it isn't glamorous, it isn't sexy, it isn't insipid, and it isn't likely to get youlaid." One begins after awhile to question the pretense of "Soyouwanna Fake Beingan Indie Rock Expert?" both as a ruse and as a condensed or skeletal version of amore in-depth education. Its rules of discourse are in fact rather tedious. Afterproviding a sample of "what one might say," the author refers back to the speaker'shidden tactics, which include "linking" two bands, "referencing them back" to oneanother, "recognizing differences" within a particular artist's career, leaving an"opening" for response, criticizing an artist, and confirming one's presence at animportant show. The idea is that, by knowing the rules of conversation, one can getby without much factual knowledge. Another section, however, advocates "depth notbreadth." Suggestions are given as to further reading, and lists of "important" labelsand bands, along with a brief bistory of indie rock, are provided. The fifth section.


"Complete the Ruse," attempts to "fill in the holes" with further suggestions asspecific as "Familiarize yourself vfith The Elephant 6 Collective of the Olivia TremorControl, Apples in Stereo, and Neutral Milk Hotel"; "Know about Minneapolis in theheyday ofthe '80s"; "pick one favorite band that just never broke despite their genius";and "pick a foreign country and school yourself in some of its bands" ("Soyouwanna";all emphases in original). Indeed, to pursue everything suggested here would entail afairly serious educational process, though one dictated "from above" by acommercial source.

SYW undoubtedly taps into a power mecbanism tbat functions to establisb andpreserve social differences. In Bourdieu's words:

Taste classifies, and it classifies the classifier. Social subjects, classified by theirclassifications, distinguish themselves by the distinctions they make, between thebeautiful and the ugly, the distinguished and the vulgar, in which their position inthe objective classifications is expressed or betrayed. ("Distinction" 435).

Statements about music are statements about tbe self, and SYW plays its own role inthe preservation of these "objective" classifications. Through a list of imperatives, ittells its audience how to look, how to talk, how to act. Through a regimen coveringpoints as fine as bathing habits, it escorts readers toward a particular, objectivelydefined "identity." Existing in the absence of music is a discourse, a circulation ofsigns, and a surprisingly meticulous social etiquette.

Marketing Indie Rock: Amazon.com

Recently, I received an e-mail message from Amazon.com:

We've noticed that many of our customers who have purchased albums byGodspeed You Black Emperor also enjoy the music of Stratford 4. For this reason,you might like to know that Stratford 4's new album 'Love & Distortion' is nowavailable. You can order your copy by following the link below.

This dictation of "what I might like" from those who want to sell it to me caused meto think more seriously about tbe commercial industry's role in the defining and useof musical categories. Most of the new material I am exposed to and purchase nowfinds me through this very elaborate system of consumer processing. Based onprevious purchases, this mechanism (which, like Bentham's panopticon, does notdepend on personnel for its operation) extends its tentacles to each consumer,recording every bit of information into an elaborate filing system that integrates itwith that of other customers. Then, in a kind of data reversal, it regurgitates"personal" recommendations, thus enhancing its marketing capacity towardindividuals. Sure enough, their suggestions, complete with sound samples, tend tosuit my personal "taste," and releases by artists I like (even those whose works I havenot purchased through Amazon) are regularly called to my attention. As a colleagueof mine put it, "they've pretty well got me pegged." The logic is sound enough, andfollows simple rules of association: "you like band A; these people like band A too, as

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well as band B; you are likely to enjoy band B." Or, perhaps: "you like band A; ourexperts say that band B is similar; there is a good chance you will like band B." Ofcourse, one cannot be certain what one likes before receiving and spending some timewith it, so the marketing strategy depends to some extent on customers' faith in suchlogic. This explains why, in the margins, Amazon provides record lists created byother customers: while allowing some to display their cultural capital, the listsprovide for others, by way of the same associative logic, a means to new discoveries(the relative anonymity of the Internet, and the process of "searching," hold intactthe consumer's sense of authority—there is no exterior agent holding the "I knewfirst" rule over one's head). The entire Amazon site is based on an ironic catering toindividuals, which is only made possible through a clustering of "types."

When I open the Amazon homepage on my laptop, I find the site alreadypersonalized: "Ryan's store," it declares, "Ryan's Gold Box" (whatever that is), "Yourrecommendations," "Your new releases," and "The page you made." With suchlanguage, Amazon both disguises its own position of agency while trying to instill inthe consumer a sense of complete control: not "our" recommendations, but "yours";not "artists'" new releases, but "yours." The very "store" itself, the pronoun assuresus, belongs to the consumer. "You are a unique individual," the site seems to say,"with unique interests; don't mind us, we are here merely to help fiilfiU thoseinterests." The goal, in other words, is to create an illusion of autonomy for theconsumer—a private universe in which music can be experienced without corruptinterference. In reality, of course, the creation of unique and autonomous"identities" helps to sell products. Genres and subgenres play an important role inthis process.

One way to "browse" the Amazon selections is by musical categories. "Classical"music is distinguisbed from "popular," which in turn breaks down into a multitudeof options. One can continue narrowing the category, as if channeling deeper into thevaults of rock music, toward something increasingly obscure, personally suited to tbeconsumer, and tberefore highly valuable. A chain of symbols, or "breadcrumb trail,"helps create this impression—i.e., "Music > Styles > Alternative Rock > Indie & Lo-Ei > Indie Pop > Dream Pop." Links to specific artists and albums appear along theway. What one notices, however, when using this search method for any length oftime, is that categories bleed into one another ("Lo-Ei" is a subcategory of "Indie &Lo-Ei"; "Indie Music" is listed as a separate search from "Alternative Rock," whichalso contains "Indie" as a subcategory), and the same artists can be found undervarious headings (for instance, Sigur Ros's () tops the charts under both "ChamberPop" and "Ambient Pop"). Not only does Amazon cbart the progress of my ownsearch, it also provides alternate trajectories, complete with breadcrumb trails, in abox to the side. These deviate from one another only slightly and their purpose isdifficult to make sense of, except that they suggest endless possibilities for tunnelingtoward a private space.

It is less than clear whether music providers or consumers play a larger role in thecreation of marginal categories. But, if the latter first coined "indie" as an attempt to


preserve something outside the corporate industry, one can be sure that very industrywasted no time appropriating the term as a marketing strategy. Like Soyouwanna.com, Amazon is able to take advantage of a power apparatus that drives peopletoward social differentiation. "Get it before your friends," Amazon encouragesconsumers of unreleased records, for, as they well know, consumers are purchasingnot just music but personal identities. To get an album "first" is a distinct advantagein the game of symbolic capital; while the value of any listening experience isupgraded directly in proportion to its lack of other listeners, to have done it first putsan irremovable featber in one's cap. To searcb "deep" into a website for a biddenjewel is to strive for a possession of social value.

It would be too simple to describe tbe power at work as concentrated in themarketplace and acting on individuals or consumers. Rather, it seems that providerswithin the capitalist system are able to participate in and take advantage of a morepervasive power structure (though one that is perhaps inseparable fi'om capitalism).Customers turn their purchases into instruments of power, but in the meantime aresubject to a manipulation that surely calls into question their agency as creativeindividuals. Internet scholars are but cautiously optimistic about the implications ofa burgeoning e-commerce. While celebrating "disintermediation," or the bypassingof middlemen that enhances individuals' freedom of choice and saves them time andmoney, Andrew Shapiro explains that, in the case of Amazon, the intermedial groundof local retailers is not so much eliminated as displaced (55—56). "In Eebrurary 1999,"he adds, "customers of Amazon.com were surprised to learn that publishers werepaying $10,000 or more to have their books prominently featured on the web sitewith accolades like 'New and Notable' or 'Destined for Greatness'" (98). In Gode: AndOther Laws of Gyberspace, Lawrence Lessig warns of "architectures of control" thathave an increasing capacity to regulate bebavior (30):

When you first purchase a book from Amazon.com and establish an account ...Amazon.com's server places an entry in your cookie file. When you return to thatsite, your browser sends the cookie along with the request for the site; the servercan then set your preferences according to your account. Amazon.com canrecommend books for you to buy, given the pattern of purchases you have madebefore. (34)

The very fact that, by recognizing my "type," Amazon can predict what I am likelyto purchase, suggests that what I perceive as individual choice or personal taste isactually part of a more objective social structure. But corporations are responsible forcreating as well as exploiting such structures. One cannot help but recognize withAmazon something ofthe pervasive, mysterious power described by Eoucault not as arepressive force but as one that "produces reality; it produces domains of objects andrituals of truth. The individual and the knowledge that may be gained of him belongto this production" (194). Eor all its proclaimed edginess, indie rock would appear tosatisfy more than it challenges preexisting social and economic structures. Aspoignantly demonstrated by recent ad campaigns, the desire for otherness, fordistinction from the masses (a sentiment coherent with the tradition of "culture and

76 R. Hibbett

society" mapped out by Raymond Williams more than 40 years ago, and dating

perhaps as far back as the Industrial Revolution), is highly marketable. Volkswagen's

use of songs by Jay Earrar and Nick Drake; its small group of friends who

conscientiously turn away from the party, preferring instead the select company and

superior space of their car; the unanticipated sounds of Mogwai on botb a Levi's

commercial and Sex and the Gity episode—all these suggest that the desire to be

different is little more than commonplace, that the indie elite are more numerous

than they would perhaps care to think.

Note

[1] For a more thorough background, with a keener eye toward industrial politics and indierock's post-punk roots in the UK, see Hesmondhaigh.

Works Cited

Amazon.com. "Stratford 4's 'Love and Distortion'." E-mail to Ryan Hibbett. 20 Apr. 2003.Andrewhy. "Lou Barlow." Concert Review. Tiny Mixtapes Gone to Heaven. Nov. 2002. 27 April

2003. <http://www.tinymixtapes.eom/concertreviews/l 1.08.02_barlow.htm>.Azzerad, Michael. Our Band Could Be Your Life: Scenes from the American Indie Underground, 1981-

1991. Boston: Back Bay, 2001.Bourdieu, Pierre. "The Aristocracy of Culture." Cultural Theory and Popular Culture: A Reader.

Trans. Richard Nice. Ed. lohn Storey. 2nd ed. Athens: U of Georgia P, 1998. 436-40.. "Distinction." Cultural Theory and Popular Culture: A Reader. Trans. Richard Nice. Ed. John

Storey. 2nd ed. Athens: U of Ceorgia P, 1998. 431-36.. The Field of Cultural Production. Ed. Randal Johnson. Columbia: Columbia UP, 1993.

Brainwashed. 9 June 2003 <http://www.brainwashed.com/info.html>.DeWinter, Corrine. "Love Song: An Interview with Lou Barlow." Uno Mas 17 June 2003 <http://

www.unomas.com/features/loubarlow.html>.Efrim. "Godspeed You Black Emperor!: An Open Letter from Efrim." Brainwashed Feb. 2001. 9

June 2003 <http://brainwashed.com/godspeed/efrim-letter.html>.Emerick, John. Interview with Lou Barlow. "Sebadoh!." 27 Apr. 2003 <http://www.angelfire.com/

punk2/walktheplank/sebadoh.html>.Foucault, Michel. Discipline and Punish: The Birth ofthe Prison. Trans. Alan Sheridan. 1977. New

York: Vintage, 1995.Gonk. "A Brave Release." Rev. of The Original Losing Losers, by Sentridoh. Amazon.com Feb. 2001.

27 Apr. 2003 <http://www.amazon.eom/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B000005DKI/ref =m_art_li_5/102-3490022-9016936?v=glance&s = music>.

Hesmondhaigh, David. "Indie: The Institutional Politics and Aesthetics ofa Popular Music Genre."Cultural Studies 13 (1999): 34-61.

Johnson, Randal. Introduction. The Field of Cultural Production. By Pierre Bourdieu. Columbia:Columbia UP, 1993.

Lessig, Lawrence. Code: And Other Laws of Cyberspace. New York: Basic, 1999.Ortega y Gasset, J. "La deshumanizacion del arte." Obras Completas. Madrid: Revista de Occidente,

1966. 355-6.Pike, Jason. "A Man a Tape Recorder and a Twisted Sense of Humor." Rev. of The Original Losing

Losers, by Sentridoh, Amazon.com July 2001. 27 Apr. 2003. <http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B000005DKI/ref = m_artji_5/102-3490022-9016936?v=glance&s=music>.

Reger, Rick. "Folk Implosion at the Abbey Pub." Concert Review. Metromix.com May 2003.27 Apr. 2003<http://entertainment.metromiK.chicagotribune.eom/top/l, 1419,M-Metromix-CriticsRevi ews-X!ArticleDetail-6O552,00.html>.


Seiler, Cotten. "'Have You Ever Been to the Pleasure Inn?': The Transformation of Indie Rock inLouisville, Kentucky." Journal of Popular Music Studies 13 (2001): 189-205.

Shapiro, Andrew L. The Control Revolution: How the Internet is Putting Individuals in Charge andChanging the World We Know. New York: Public Affairs, 1999.

"Soyouwanna Fake Being an Indie Rock Expert?" Soyouwanna.com 30 March 2003 <www.soyouwanna.com/site/syws/indierock/indierock.html>.

Thornton, Sarah. Club Cultures: Music, Media and Subcultural Capital. Hanover: Wesleyan UP,1996.

Williams, Raymond. Culture and Society: 1780-1950. 1958. Columbia: Columbia UP, 1983."Yanqui U.X.O.", Constellation Records. 24 June 2003 <http://www.cstrecords.com/html/

cstO24main.html>.

Discography

Dirty Three. Oceans Songs. Touch and Go, 1998.. She Has No Strings Apollo. Touch and Go, 2002.. Whatever You Love You Are. Touch and Go, 2000.

Godspeed You Black Emperor! F#a#«>. Kranky, 1998.. Lift yr. skinny fists like antennas to heaven!. Kranky, 2000.. Slow Riot for New Zer0 Kanada F.P. Kranky, 1999.. Yanqui U.X.O. Constellation, 2002.

Lou Barlow and Friends. Another Collection of Home Recordings. Mint, 1994.Pavement. Wowee Zowee. Matador, 1995.Sebadoh. Bakesale. Sub Pop, 1994.

. Cimme Indie Rock 7. Homestead, 1991.

. The Freed Weed. Homestead, 1990.Sentridoh. The Original Losing Losers. Revolving Usa, 1995.

. Winning Losers. Smells Like, 1994.Sigur Ros. Agaetis Byrjun. Fatcat, 2001.

. (). MCA, 2002.The Folk Implosion. Dare to be Surprised. Communion, 1997.

. Take a Look Inside. Communion, 1994.The Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra and Tra-La-La Band. "Born Into Trouble as the Sparks Fly

Upward". Constellation, 2001.. He Has Lefi Us Alone But Shafts of Light Sometimes Crace the Corner of Our Rooms.

Constellation, 2000.They Might be Giants. Flood. Elektra/Asylum, 1990.

hibbett (2005). what is indie rock

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