Going pop

swears

swears

preppy-kei
I was thinking today about Scritti Politti's transition from noisy post-punkers into slicked out hi-tech R'n'B flavoured pop.
Do you think there's any potential for the current crop of indie straggers to finally get fitted up for decent suits,(no chucks or jeans), decent haircuts, put the antiquated string and percussion instruments down and start making some proper music? It would be easier than ever with the wide array of music software available, you could knock up a few hits in a hotware copy of Cubase, no sweat.
This said, though...the current crop of indie rawkers are far too defeated and bloodless to open themselves up to either avant garde experimentation or play-to-win popism and even imagine this scenario.
 
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henry s

Street Fighting Man
as Green himself sang, "don't they want to, be the Beatles?"

I thought for a while that we might start seeing electronic artists making such a leap...Daft Punk (who in fact were indie rockers at one time) in particular seemed ripe, what with working with Britney Spears, branching out into animation, product development, hyper-awareness of their images (or lack thereof), that Daft Card thing, soundtracks, etc...I guess I was wrong...
 
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tate

Brown Sugar
I know nothing about the current crop of UK 'indie' apart from the fact that swears is a big fan (lol), but the first thing that comes to mind in the US context is the obvious recent example of DFA-related stuff. Juan Maclean was the guitarist in Six Finger Satellite, who were in fact a very good band back in the day, and James Murphy of DFA/LCD was their sound man; this was after Murphy had earlier played in guitar bands Falling Man and Pony. Swears has already mentioned the guy from MSTRKRFT, and I am sure that there must be loads of other examples . . . but as I mentioned, I don't know UK guitar bands so have no idea about the current situation . . .
 
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henry s

Street Fighting Man
The DFA also worked with Britney Spears...and maybe Janet Jackson?...

back in the day of Scritti/ABC and others, punk (rock) had become pretty conventional, so adopting its antithesis (slick R n' B) was pretty much the only path for a righteous contrarian to take...of course, the lines were pretty clearly drawn back then...now, not so much...everybody pretty much dabbles in everything else...I was just half-jokingly thinking to myself that Show Tunes would be a pretty fecund frontier for an indie band to explore if they really wanted an 'A' for effort, but then, that's just where bands like The Killers and Panic! At The Disco seem to be heading...
 
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Gabba Flamenco Crossover

High Sierra Skullfuck
In the 70s & 80s there was a big cultural centre ground worth fighting over, so it made sense to talk about 'going pop' in terms of access to a mass market (and that's why the post punkers did it, not for aesthetic reasons). I'm not sure that's true any more - pop nowadays is just a different niche demographic, probably a smaller one than indie rock in fact.
 
swears

swears

preppy-kei
Thing is, a preppy, smartly dressed band would stand out now, because there's nothing more mainstream at the moment than dressing a bit "alternative" or "funky". Everybody's got tatts and piercings and can buy a pair of pre-ripped jeans from Topman. All that psuedo-rebellion crap is over.
 
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gek-opel

entered apprentice
The problem with yr analogy swears is that "going pop" in the sense of populist now means sounding like James Blunt/Coldplay (incidentally the latter were the biggest selling act globally last year in terms of album sales). "Pop" as genre has been fucked since about 2002 in terms of proper comercial appeal in the UK at least.
 
swears

swears

preppy-kei
chef: Not really, it's like like a late seventies post-punk throw back image. More nerdy/dour than pin-sharp.
 
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gek-opel

entered apprentice
None of them look particularly slick, which I think is what Swears is aiming for... almost a kind of designer business/male fashion model type super-sharpness, all angles and fine fabricated surfaces, kind of modern day update on 80s R'n'B.
 
swears

swears

preppy-kei
Or even if they could just tuck in their shirts, that would be nice.

scritti07.jpg
 
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henry s

Street Fighting Man
I'd be pleased if today's crop of indie-whippersnappers simply started their shows in a timely fashion...and would it kill 'em to tell us that they were glad to be in our city, and that we've got the best audiences in the world?
 
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tryptych

waiting for a time
gek-opel said:
None of them look particularly slick, which I think is what Swears is aiming for... almost a kind of designer business/male fashion model type super-sharpness, all angles and fine fabricated surfaces, kind of modern day update on 80s R'n'B.
Click to expand...

I kinda wish the Junior Boys would dress like that.
 
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