How "indie" became a pejorative

[koganbot]

Interchange between me and Tal on the Jukebox; runs similar to my attempts to restate my "PBS" idea to Marc the other day. I'm curious if anyone has any thoughts on how to clarify and/or improve the idea. (Cliffs Notes version of the idea here.)

By the way, Will is doing a terrific job in framing and collating our responses in the best-off. Man's a writer.

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

I think you did a better job than most at expressing why "indie" can be considered a negative description. I just have a serious problem with "indie" as an adjective, period. It rarely, if ever, tells me anything about the music. (For example, the statement "it's pretty good, but it's indie" was especially problematic for me because "indie" stood there like a red button with a huge sign above it saying "DO NOT TOUCH," it begs me to ask what the hell it does, i.e. what "indie" does generally).

I would defend Calle 13 if I felt as strongly about it as I do about Busy Signal, but I don't, really.

[koganbot]

Well, "indie" and the like say something about the music's social affiliations and sensibility (just as "stoner" etc. would), so I have no problem with their adjectival use. But you're right that it invites expansion - but I'll also say that in that write-up the word pointed back at my earlier words in the blurb, "indie" giving a social label to the aesthetic failure I'd already described. I don't mind being problematic and incomplete in a blurb, but of course questions like Tal's are therefore natural.