personally,
I am surprised that we are waiting for the record biz, media, what-have-you apparatus for signs of a next wave: clear channel is playing cool-guy bands, Time says this, etc.
Yes, it is occasionally beneficial to all for the mainstream and the "lunatic fringe" to dance in close proximity (punk, new wave, college rock, grunge, alt, emo, skate-punk, etc.), but in general, the selling machine will do little for the indie rock scene.
I have been out of the music scene for a living since roughly about the time the Internet should have revolutionized it, but it looks like the latency of the revolution is longer than I expected.
While movements are nice for the "best of breed" to get their props, they do little to encourage consistent diversity or true innovation and generally waste a few years while movements work themselves out.
Look, with the Internet, we really have a way to be connected to each other in a fashion that does not require the centralization and aggregation of information for the purposes of dissemination (I mean this in the most commercial of senses - of course the Internet IS ITSELF what I have just described). As the Internet passed through some key maturity stages, we let the man stick it to us with Digital Rights legislation and the like - which has great motivation in theory, but is engineered to prop up the dinosaurs in practice.
When you consider the close tether that the professional crowd within these forums has to the leviathan we call the music business, I suppose being preoccupied with movements and trends is important from a bread-and-butter (or at least from a familiarization/awareness) stand point.
Here is my firm belief - music will rise again in terms of being a true enrichment to our lives when things go grassroots again. By this I mean:
+ local/regional radio
+ strong local/regional record outlets
+ strong genre-specific focus outlets on the Internet that support the strong local/regional record outlets
+ a strong and varied live/original (and cover!) local/regional music scene. Today, in all but the largest markets, live music struggles.
+ use of the Internet to reduce the commercial aggregate focus on music (a corporate approach relies on economies of scale that are counter to the aims of art)
+ dissolution of the "rock star" ethic that has proved to ruin music. This is the promise of fame, fortune, hits, limos, benz, enz, bling-bling, etc. that, I feel, has brain-washed us all. This may sound socialist to you but, why not a modest/moderate income for many than a system that rewards few and uses up/washes out many? I am thinking of Albini's "some of your friends are already this fucked" paper on the typical outcome for those that "make it" and get their first deal. A & R seems to have nothing to do with artist development anymore.
Look, now that we can really work amongst ourselves to get information about music between ourselves; and now that we have reliable and somewhat legal means to buy music on the Internet, maybe what we need is a cultural social shift away from the trappings of the past and the habits and rituals that come with them. We don't need to worry about the fucking billboard, or MTV, or the Warped Tour or any of the same bullshit - the revolution will not be televised. The revolution (like all good revolutions) will come when we reject the system of the old and move forward ourselves - recording our own music, playing our own shows, and buying/selling/trading our music between ourselves.
The punk-indie rock scene has had trappings of this for the last 20 years, with underground shows, zines, 7-inch subscription deals and the like. Sadly, we have are all programmed, from an early age, to subconsciously plot a trajectory to success for our well-nurtured indie scenes, where success is painted against the economies-of-scale corporate-profits ethic. Turn on MTV for a second to see how the brainwash (in just one incarnation) works:
bling-bling, pimp-my-ride, look at my crib, look, I am living large, I am rich, I am famous.
Even with the "making the band" series, they never focused on a band at all - nobody played a goddammed thing in those "bands."
Now, I know it is silly to come to a setting such as this using MTV as an exemplar - that dross holds no sway here. However, places like MTV, Billboard, etc. are still considered "the top" and are almost always used a measures of success. Movements are parasitically fed upon from above - and cultural brainwash, including a natural and healthy desire to have a wad of dough, usually has the indie guy being presented with the apple of desire taking the bite.
I do not blame or hold success against ANY great and hard-working indie band when success is wafted their way; as the aussies would say: "good on ya!" However, almost by definition, entering into the arena of the man is the end of innocence. Aren't there better definitions of success? If I could naively believe that all of us buying their major-label record was the ultimate expression of our collective patronage, all would be well. However, I think most of us in here know better - WAY BETTER. Can we have the collective patronage without resorting to the music industry apparatus? Some, like Todd Rungren, have tried and have found that music fans are now acculturated to the way the machine works - we have not evolved enough to ween ourselves of the "way it works."
We are a consumer society and can't help ourselves in terms of aspiring to the trappings of succeses - cool, nothing wrong with toys, fun and excess. But what does this have to do with art? What is indie about this? Well, nothing and most "indie" folk know it.
Sorry for the rant. Basically, being older now and having been an "indie dude" for the last 25 years now, I must encourage those of us on this side of the fence to not concern ourselves with fads, trends and movements - they are the trappings of the apparatus that MUST BE PUT DOWN.
