Hornets' Nest

Here's a long response I wrote in response to Tom's brief sketch of a schema of music history and the relation between content and context. He gives us three eras:

The Pre-Recording Era
The Recording Era
The ???? Era (Now, Basically)

And I played with that:

( The Conversation Era )

Not generalizing her estrangement

More convo with Tom on his Tumblr, this time as to whether or not Taylor Swift's "You Belong With Me" is indiepop. I say not, though I can hear the potential indieness that he hears. (Also, more generally, I can hear parallels between country and indie in that country is up to its eyeballs in alienation and social resentment; one thing I find inspiring about Taylor, beyond the craftsmanship that insists you tell a story rather than simply allude to one while hoping that the listener will do your work for you, is that, though she's personally hurt - it's all over her lyrics - and she hangs on to her bitterness, she's not head deep in social resentment.*)

( The reason You Belong With Me is not indie )

*Which isn't to say that one can't do great stuff with social resentment, mind you, as long as it doesn't devolve into an easy shtick.