A lot of talk is going around about this Vampire weekend business, though I must confess I was a bit skeptical, hearing their various singles on all manner of radio stations, knowing their online circulation has long preceded their album debut. Words get tossed around like "Afro-pop," "preppy," and of course a host of likenings and general likings. Fair enough, everybody loves to discover something and adore it before its really "out there" for the masses to (under)appreciate. I sure like to hear a catchy song that won't be on mixtapes next to "My Humps" anyway.
In this way I believe what Vampire Weekend has done has been an absolutely ingenious marketing strategy-- how many teensy indie bands debut their record and have it sit comfortably at 17 on the charts? Not only does this prove that a) a large number of people have been convinced to part with their $12-18 after hearing only a few singles b) there were an awful lot of those records out there for people to buy (more than 27,000). Somebody over there at XL knew exactly what they were up to, leading this album with the sort of slick marketing campaign that makes us all feel like we're creating the success of this band (because there are genuinely likeable things about VW), when really, we've been brilliantly duped into feeling grassrootsy -- YouTube is no longer grassroots, nor is Myspace, and New York City isn't a city that lends its kind affirmation to any accidentally catchy group of college kids. This is the new way bands come alive-- through the digital world, with success calculable far before a physical record has been shipped. We didn't discover this band, they've discovered us. XL saw that they had a good thing in Vampire Weekend, not necessarily something better than other indie bands around, but something that XL had in their hands and they knew exactly which buttons to push to end on "purchase."
Now, I don't really have a problem with someone 'having my number' as far as how to get their product which I will likely want to purchase into my head, I'm getting a little bit lazy about looking for shiny new tunes, but I wonder how long a thing like this can last. Not these Vampire Weekend guys specifically, they're fine and (highly!)preppy and enjoyable, sort of to me like a bonier version of the wildly successful Shins, but this technique. Because part of the indie spirit is opposed to being marketed to-- we want to find things ourselves, not be corralled in our little sandbox to dig up what someone put there, some giant plastic dinosaur we couldn't miss-- for this reason I think that there are a few things that could happen next. There will grow up new avenues for discovery, once people discover that "hey, Anyone can find this band I like online. . and if anybody likes them, I must be too close to the mainstream" (because, lets all be honest, its sort of more fun to pat ourselves on the back when we love a small band, but when they garner the attention of fans who we think can't possibly be appreciating the music on the same level we are, it sort of takes the wind out of our sails). So, we'll find new ways to burrow underneath and find things. And though the way VW did this may be reusable for a time, it won't last forever in the indie genre. (I'm thinking back to the Killers debut, when the indie world blew them 1000 kisses, and then when jocks and party girls started to love it too. . the fanfare faded away. That band is still making a living, so I suppose the indie fans were just a stepping stone. Or Sufjan, frat boys can enjoy Sufjan?)
Anyway, so I think they've made a fine new album, but the most interesting thing about them is how this little Columbia college band is going to change how indie folks find their new ear candy. HMM indeed!
Friday, February 15, 2008
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4 comments:
The pop world has been long about its hype creation. Where before you had top 40 radio djs taking payola to promote these sugar coated diddies, you now have bright shiny myspace pages and youtube where any promoter can push a band for literally nothing.
Having a stellar Pitchfork review doesn't hurt either. I do frequent Pitchfork often and am not ashamed to admit it. Their features are usually very well done and the interview/survey style of their Guest List section always provides for a good read. The news section too is a very good resource for information about bands I care to keep up to date about. Their reviews though, I could do without. Any publication that reviews a record by someone like Lil' Wayne and actually finds some worth in it, doesn't peak my interest or even garners my respect. That being said, the P4k writers are said to be friends with the members of Vampire Weekend, and that lends itself to some doubt about any objectivity in their review.
Personally, I have no interest in picking up this record. I've taken the time to listen to many of the tracks and they don't strike me as much more than a pop-punk band that finally grew up. I know thats not even close to being a reasonable comparison. Its just this sort of middle of the road indie/pop rock with no substance to it. Unfortunately too, I think I may feel even stronger about this being that there is so much hype regarding this band right now.
I'm going to wrap this up by saying that much of what I've just written probably makes little to no sense. I really don't mean to step on anyones toes here, and as much as I love sharing my opinions I've recently tried to keep my contrary ones to myself. Trying to be more positive and all that.
All in all, thanks for the post. I truly appreciate it. I love you all and apologize for any assholery I may have participated in with the above stream of consciousness.
i agree that there's nothing "grassroots" about VW's success. after all, if people like us were truly able to "break" a band into the mainstream, My Teenage Stride would be flushing their money-turds down their diamond-crusted toilets right now.
here's what i think:
the Strokes came along at a time when we all thought rock and roll needed "saving." And they were the guys to do it, what with their shaggy-haired, leather-and-denim-clad, smokin' n' drinkin' n' screwin' n' fightin' not givin' a FUCK...yes, the hype surrounding VW looks like one of Spinal Tap's "Smell the Glove" promotional appearances compared to the chorus of news outlets bellowing in our ears about the Bold New Era of rock Is This It? was supposed to herald.
Then the album dropped and...nice tunes! These guys didn't sound like they could save a dilapidated rec center from greedy condo developers, let alone the unwieldy beast that is rock n' roll from the Nickelbacks of this world (best-selling artist of the 00s - i shit you not). But...nice tunes!
And on the wrong side of a DECADE later (I can't believe it either!) - still nice tunes! Is This It? remains one of the most endlessly replayable records of the decade. I feel almost as strongly about Room On Fire which I panned in the public forum as No, It Isn't (ho-HO...SO clever) at the time. The songs have stood up because divorced from the hype and the holy mandate to save rock n' roll, they're just good songs that have modest hopes for their futures - to be on your mixtapes, to soundtrack your showers, and be in future iterations of "Rock Band" (Is This It? full-album download on Xbox Live NOW, plz...UK edition, of course).
Now, I don't get the same giddy feeling of wanting to replay the album again as soon as it's over from VW, but some have expressed to me that they do. And still...nice tunes!
There will come a time when you will listen to this record without feeling like you are making a lifestyle statement, or participating in a worldwide debate, subjecting their work to rigorous peer review before your personal scientific community finds it acceptable. When that day comes, relax, kick up your heels, and if it sounds the way Candlebox did to me when I tried to revisit them in 11th grade after liking them in 9th, then arrivederci, baby!
but what do i know? i'm playing "Da Drought 3" right now!
as far as the marketing of the album goes: i hope against hope that we've all seen Aziz Ansari's brilliant "Clell Tickle: Indie Marketing Guru" thing. If not, here it is:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pFwC6bqtNCQ
where have all the grassroots gone? (somebody write a little ditty and put that in it)
I guess in the end, I felt sort of duped into buying the record. . sure its fine and whatever. . but did I buy it because I knew it would be fine. . or because supposedly in the know people who i want to be like liked it, so i should, too? I confess, there are many records I own that I bought because "someone like me" should own said record (?). Anybody else? Maybe its just me. And it bugs me, because I don't want sneaky-a marketing gurus inside my head. I don't believe buying Axe body spray really gets guys action in elevators. .
"There will come a time when you will listen to this record without feeling like you are making a lifestyle statement, or participating in a worldwide debate, subjecting their work to rigorous peer review before your personal scientific community finds it acceptable."
What's preventing us from enjoying a record without making a "lifestyle statement" right now? Perhaps we implicitly chose to participate in the hype-marketing culture by caring about and debating it. Why care about whether or not we've been marketed to? It's unavoidable! It's capitalism! It's even, I would probably argue, the human condition!
It is totally fun to debate and search for new ways to make ourselves feel cool, but, in recognizing that the unavoidable saturation of marketing culture has now claimed "indie" music (and pitchfork, which I also love, may ironically be the most responsible party) perhaps we can decide "fuck it i like this music" regardless of origin.
It's also fun and easy to shit on Nickelback fans (I can't stand them or their despicable band either ... I can't believe they're the musical zeitgeist of the decade of our maturation into adults!) but they do have one thing on us ... I bet most of them don't give a shit about whether or not their favorite band has cred or grassroots beginnings. They hear something they enjoy and rock with it, regardless of where it comes from or if the band has awful hair and goatees and shiny flame shirts. Sometimes I wish I could do that.
That said, I've heard most of the tracks of the VW album once or twice and they didn't grab me. Pleasant, though. I like that A Punk song though ... it's got my dancepunk beat!
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