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But instead it was just an article on how old I am. Long live the ambiguity/corniness/antiquity of INDIE ROCK and ALTERNATIVE MUSIC.

p.s.- Ask MTV to bring back 120 minutes, pretty please?

But really both terms are so far removed from their initial meaning now, arguing that one meaning is less spurious than the other is like arguing that the Invisible Pink Unicorn is more/less plausible than the Flying Spaghetti Monster. Americans can and will continue to mock ‘indie’ for being meaningless, and we will continue to smirk “alternative to what!? fnar fnar” in your direction until some genius can come up with A Third Way.

How about – ALTERNATINDIE?

The whole piece is really worth reading (clicky here), but three quotes in particular stuck out for me:

Tim Walker: “Someone has even compounded a helpful term to use when you call the record companies in a [festival] line-up emergency; this uninspiring, guitar-gelled Polyfilla – of which The Fratellis are a fine example – is now known by some as “landfill indie”.”

Simon Reynolds: “By 1986 ‘indie’ pretty much equated with a refusal of the pop present. Because it now meant a style of music, not a means of production and distribution, it could be uncoupled from the independent label system, and that is what gradually happened.”

Andrew Collins: “[Britpop] was great fun… But it wasn’t indie, and it pushed a whole slew of workmanlike guitar bands centre-stage, where they were even expected to represent their rebranded country, giving the quite false impression that Cool Britannia was an Indie Nation. The essence of New Labour, indie was capitalism dressed up as revolutionary socialism.”

Hmmm. In conclusion, I’d definitely like to see that phrase “landfill indie” used a lot more.

The degree of how “pop” it is: completely relative.

I know that’s not useful now, but when music is eventually outlawed, none of this will matter.

I dunno about alternative in all cases though. With a band like Sebadoh, who picked up some fans during the alternative era but never made the major label jump, it just seems inappropriate. Their music predates what we usually think of as alt-rock and came from a tradition that a lot of people, both then and now, preferred to call ‘indie rock’. Or maybe ‘indie’ is more a confusing term now than it used to be? Still, what about a band like Wye Oak? Are they an alternative rock band?

We all just gotta suck it up and be more descriptive.

Still, I’d be more inclined to put on Sponge than listen to Win Butler stutter over boring, pretentious, plodding music.

Just say you’re a sucker for a well played guitar and a winsome haircut and leave it at that.

I can get behind this full-force. I’d also like to start using the term “college rock,” just to see how people respond to it.

And Sponge. Back to YouTube.

“Alternative Girlfriend” is one of my favorite songs.

As a cataloging librarian I deal with this all the time: working with the vocabulary bestowed upon us by the Library of Congress AND battling with an older generation of librarians. One of my colleagues is determined to have “indie rock” made an official LC genre heading and was surprised when I disagreed with her. “Indie” doesn’t really describe how a music sounds and that’s what the genre headings are for. “Alternative rock” works just fine – for now.