Indie

It's no secret that I'm skeptical of anything that calls itself "indie". Indie rock, indie movies. .

Being short for independent, indie, at least in my understanding of the definition, was meant to be an alternative to what was being offered in the mainstream. But it's been about 15 years that these things have become, and stayed, mainstream, which would lead one to believe that the term no longer applies and should be changed, for a start.

But for me, at least subconsciously, when I hear the term "indie," I automatically think "bad." Well, I guess it's not exactly subconscious if I can voice the thought. But the fact remains, I'm immediately skeptical about anything that bills itself that way, or in my opinion puports to be that. What I've discovered through these last 15 minutes is that there are just as many crap indie bands and movies are there are mainstream. More, in fact, because it also appears that indie is also synonymous with accepting a lower level of quality.

I can understand this to some extent in filmmaking. It's is such an expensive endeavor, even on a small level, that without big studio backing you don't get the best equipment, the best people, the support to accomplish what you want.

Where I can't accept it as easily is in music. Rightly or wrongly, when I hear/think indie, a few preconcieved notions jump through my head:

1)Out of key singing
2)Bad sounds (which is subjective, I realize.)
3)Out of tune playing

I can handle any one of these things alone, and possibly even two, but when all three come together, I'm all set with it. The underlying song could still be good, but I want nothing to do with it at that point.

The thing that makes it all the more unbearable is that it is unnecessary. Good gear and home recording equipment is cheap, avaialable, and increasingly easier to use. The ability to make CD quality recordings in one's bedroom is here, folks. There's no reason to accept out of key singing or out of tune playing when you can take all the time in the world to get these things right. They are important. You also have all the time in the world to get better sounds for yourself. You're not spending exorbenant amounts of money on studio costs.

I realize I'm generalizing here. There are probably plenty of bands considered indie that I do, or would, like. I just checked out the Silversun Pickups album. That's indie; it even says so in my iTunes. That album's pretty good, it only has one of the three sins (Bad sounds, and even that's not all the time.) But with plenty of indie rock still being popular nowadays, I still hear this much more often than I'd like. Laugh if you want, scoff, but for my money, I'd still prefer Bryan Adams' "Reckless" over Panic at the Disco and I'll be enjoying the new Christina Aguilera album over here far more than anything off the Killers disc.

Eh, maybe I'm just being old and curmudgeonny, but back in my day....