NEWS
EVENTS
INDIE, SORT YOURSELF OUT
I woke up this morning as I normally regrettably do, by grabbing my laptop and checking Facebook. Now whilst I’m hopefully not alone in this mean feat, I’ll take a wild guess that I’m probably a lot more alone in what grabbed my attention…yet again, talk of an Oasis reunion. Now I’m not saying that people don't care about the potential on stage reunion of one of England’s if not the world’s greatest rock n roll pairings nature has been so kind to give us, they obviously do, and you can imagine how fast tickets will sell. But what does this actually say about indie music, why are these reunions given God-like status by the people who still seem to care?
At first you might think well isn’t it obvious, they’re such big news because of what these bands have done in the past and what they mean to so many people. We saw it in 2013 with the Stone Roses, as the fields of Heaton Park flooded with Dr.Marten boots and Sergio Tacchini bucket hats and slightly further back as Pete, Carl and Co. crawled onto the main stage at Reading 2010. And now were being teased with Oasis - please nobody mention the Smiths or I’ll explode, honest.
Now this is all well and good for the bands involved looking for some extra cash or to be a little more optimistic, wanting to ‘connect to the fans’ just one more time, and also great news for the fans who can once again sport those oversized dungarees they left in the loft that aren’t oversized anymore. But let’s for once think like Cameronites here (just for a second, honest) and talk long term. These are bands that are not doing it anymore, they’re the old kings of indie who instead of laying the red carpet out for today’s indie princes, are pulling it back and selling it on Spotify. Is it not that these reunions are fawned over because of what they conjure: the memories, attitudes, the feelings of better times?
This comes back to the problems music festivals are having with their headliners. Year after year we get nostalgia band after nostalgia band, The Stones, The Who, Metallica, Dolly Parton, Gun’s and Roses just to name a few. Bands that of course you would love to see but aren’t exactly pioneers as they once were. It is through all of this that we have created our very own viscous downward spiral. First you have the festivals booking the nostalgia acts, this kills the chances of smaller bands possibly headlining, this leads to even less output from the indie world and so the nostalgia acts are increasingly seen as rare commodities, a definite field filler. It’s time for the people at the top to take the time to invest in the bands of the future or soon enough, even the nostalgia acts wont sell.
Indie isn’t dead, it’s just killing itself.
