On Indie

JAX WEAFER for MacInStyle

Wednesday November 20th 2024

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A low static hum buzzed throughout my growing up. Modest Mouse, The Shins, Florence + The Machine, Phoenix, Bloc Party, Passion Pit, and The Postal Service (always Postal Service) hung in my family's throats during car trips, dinner preparations, and dishes. A family of five became one richer. Always present, always there, I-Pod-induced soundtracking, rising up in wafts from the proto-Bluetooth speaker my mom kept on the sleeves of our kitchen next to her cookbooks. This is all to say, when I first heard the term “indie sleaze” two very conflicting narratives began to shape:

1. Excitement that this crucial part of my upbringing could now be related to my peers, and,

2. Exasperation that ‘they’ won't get ‘it’.

What was ‘it’, exactly? What is ‘it’ now? What was the indie scene, and what is ‘Indie Sleaze’? There is a crucial distinction between the original Indie Scene of the mid-2000s-mid 2010s and the ongoing attempt to conjure the scene back to life. To put it simply, the scene cannot be revived. In the same way that 1970s Punk scenes could not be mirrored exactly in modern contexts. The conduits for cultural moments like the original Indie Scene are unique to period and place. By nature current sleaze cannot be a faithful interpretation of the Scene I grew up alongside. Admittedly, it doesn't need to be a ‘faithful interpretation’ of the original Indie Scene. Scenes change and develop, expecting that something modern would be the replica of an older object is an impossible standard. Considering this, it might be important to note that the current ‘Sleaze’ is being marketed largely as nostalgia-asthetic. In this way, Indie Sleaze is an attempt at mimicking past cultural moments through fashion, music, art, and party. Mimicking past scenes in the age of social media, self branding, and open air-networking is flawed however, leaving the current push of ‘sleaze’ coming across as largely disingenuous. 

Documentation was, in the original indie scene, novel. Looking at photos on thecobrasnake, trying to pick oneself or their friends out was done for the sake of showing friends. Documentation was the consequence of cameras, websites, and those who ran them within the scene. Documentation is now the standard. We are people mimicking people seeing us mimic people. Through this mimicry, authenticity, that elusive trait, is impossible.  Authenticity is not valued so much as the ability to strike certain traits; thin, tall, and a sharp silhouette. I wonder if what we want is to see ourselves as we see others, and if in doing this, we are surrendering the very qualities that make existing within a ‘scene’ desirable.

In saying this, I don't mean to file the look curated by the likes of The Dare down. A creative is only as good as their sources. However, something of a millennial bile rises in my throat when someone references the classic button-down, black tie, and glasses initially popularized in the scene by LCD system as ‘The Dare look’. 

             The Dare Circa 2023 (GQ) LCD Soundsystem Circa 2010 (NPR)

Fashion is cyclical. Yes. The twenty-year (shortening to ten-year) rule has been a long-documented phenomenon. But just a day after my 20th birthday, it is breathtakingly shocking to see a scene you hold so closely reanimated. Like a Frankenstein of sorts, the ethos of ‘authenticity’ pivotal to the original Indie Scene is incongruent with mass mimetic desire propagated by social media. 

This phenomenon is explored further in my short essay on Partying Panopticons, which can be read here. In the essay, I talk about the concept of parties and clubs operating against their intended purposes. These spaces have historically been intended as spaces where people can dance, sing, and mingle, without the watchful eye of their whole network hanging over them in the hands of every partygoer. Now however, this seems to be a dwindling purpose of many scenes. 

My primary goal in writing this is not to say that the original scene was somehow better then its current revitalization. But rather to emphasize that the current scene of Sleaze might be reflective of something else happening within fashion, music, and the broader culture. Namely, the endless repetition of image and look. The homogenization of aesthetic and image resulting from constant broadcasting. In turn, losing what luster of distinction that drew people to the original Indie Scene. What do we lose when we are under constant watch? 

Jaxs 2000’s Indie Playlist