Life and Death of an Indie Band

Part I

Over the past few years, it's become all too easy to achieve success in the music industry. It seems that a band or artist need only buddy up with a record label and follow a well-defined, step-by-step process in order to reach stardom. Okay, perhaps that synopsis is a little over-simplified, but when you consider the percentage of radio fodder that follows a verse-chorus-verse-bridge-pause-for-emphasis-lively-chorus-with-optional-key-change song structure, it really makes you wonder.

Thankfully, in this day and age, radio is far from the be-all, end-all of the music world. Video may have killed the radio star, but it was the internet that did in your classic AM/FM dial altogether. It's the phenomenon of the world wide web that allows indie bands to crop up out of nowhere and blossom. It goes a little something this:

So you’re a tech-savvy band looking to get a break in your self-defined sub-genre, hoping to redefine indie-rock for a lost generation. No matter what you sound like, slap a few demo mp3s on a makeshift website. Soon enough, obscure-music hawks will start flocking to your site, and if you sound just right, you’ll start garnering a fan base. Although the word will spread across the internet, memorable live shows are a must, even if your audience consists of only ten people in back of that seedy bar. Remember, it only takes one dedicated fan to spread the word across forums, discussion groups and blogs. Mice click, bootlegs download, heads bob.

Next thing, bam! You’ve got a record deal through Modest Mouse’s Isaac Brock, or David Bowie feels like contributing to music once again and begins distributing your self-produced album to all of his friends. Overnight, your mp3 is lining the memory of flash cards like mp3 players line the pockets of teens. HBO is trying to get you on a soundtrack for their latest soon-to-be Emmy award winning show.

If you’ve gotten this far and haven’t had your core fans cry “sell-out”, then you’re doing well. Although your bombastic live shows have endeared you among your internet-crawling fans, it is your basement-produced limited edition album that must win over the critics. Once Pitchfork gives you the thumbs up, you know you’re set.

A year of hard touring and continually thanking the fans follows, and then your sophomore album is up for release. It’s a delicate balance between heading in a new direction and keeping with “your sound”. Pitchfork gives it a tab lower on their 10 point scale, but only because your novelty is starting, ever so slighty, to wear. You’ve still made their best new music selection. Be wary though, this is the tricky part. Zach Braff will want your songs in his movies; Sony and Microsoft will be battling for your next single.

The experimental third album is either sink or swim. You can revive yourself or bury yourself with each calculated track. Either way, a new band is starting to chew at your heels, stealing your fans with their au courant sound. The question of your legacy comes up: When you burn out or fade away, how will you be remembered?

Even in the indie community, sounds come and go, raved about one minute and then forgotten the next. What about the Rapture and their energetic dance rock? Their music was a nice thought, and great to listen to, but now where has it gone? Lasting a few years does not qualify as "standing the test of time." In ten years, will the Arcade Fire still be worth huffing and puffing about? How about in twenty?...

Part II

-Ludwik A. Sobiesiak