TRENDSPOTTING: Indie goes broke

by Richard Trapunski

November 15, 2012

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The photo from Cat Power’s Instagram post declaring her financial troubles.

At the very end of September, New York Magazine presented a cover feature on Grizzly Bear. It takes a certain level of prominence, or at least acclaim, to inspire such a lengthy profile in such an eminent publication, and Grizzly Bear certainly seems to fit that description. A critically fawned-over (and frequently written about) indie rock band from Brooklyn that grew into fixtures on the Billboard charts, cred-lenders to Beyonce and Jay-Z, and Radio City Music Hall headliners before “indie rock band from Brooklyn” had any real cachet, Grizzly Bear seem like the perfect underground success story.

Interestingly, however, writer Nitsuh Abebe’s piece takes that apparent starting point of “underdog success” and deftly debunks it, noting that though their songs soundtrack Superbowl car ads, their albums sell better than most of their former peers and inspire two-thousand-word thinkpieces, members of the band still have to worry about paying their rent, finding health insurance and planning for the future without a steady salary. Of course, art has always had a fraught, convoluted relationship with commerce, and the complexities of “career” musicianship have been argued and unpacked for the better part of the last century.

But in refocusing the dichotomy to indie rock bands, and specifically the ones who we perceive to have “made it,” Abebe seems to have brought the topic back into the critical zeitgeist. Nearly a month after the Grizzly Bear profile came out, Cat Power broke the news that she would be postponing her European tour due to sickness and “BANKRUPTCY.” The Atlantic, perhaps taking too much stock in an all-caps Instagram caption, cited this as proof that “There’s No Money in Indie Music.”

This all seems maybe a bit overstated – Chan Marshall (the real name of Cat Power)’s well-covered mental and physical concerns likely complicate her money management, and Grizzly Bear, while not living large, are at least making a living. But the fact that the precariousness of the indie rock career path qualifies as news demonstrates the way that the diologue has shifted.

Before “indie” became a genre descriptor, it was used to describe an ethos. Indie bands were identified as such by virtue of being “independent,” using DIY means to play, record, and tour, with little expectation of financial gain. In the ‘80s and ‘90s, this often manifested itself in an “us vs. them” mentality (as espoused by famous curmudgeon and underground fixture Steve Albini) that privileged the “purity” of independent art over that poisoned by the so-called corrupt music industry.

As major record labels shrink and consolidate (the former Big Six is now basically a Big Three), independent labels gain in prominence, and artists like Arcade Fire and Bon Iver win Grammys and sell out stadiums, and even major-label stars use “indie” methods, the terms are messier than ever. There’s very little semblance of “selling out” stigma left in music licensing, for instance, since, AUX Magazine’s handy infographic shows, it’s pretty much impossible to pay the rent on royalties alone.

But there’s still enough residue of the ‘90s mentality that insures articles like the Grizzly Bear story fill with comments to the tune of “boo hoo – music is about personal expression, not money.” As Abebe points out, musicians are wont to sidestep questions of commercial intent by claiming they write without pre-meditation, with no ear towards audience expectation because “calculating your music’s effect can seem suspiciously like pandering your way toward success.”

It can also result in profiles like this one on Nickelback for Bloomberg Business Week, which defends the ultra-reviled, ultra-successful rock band on grounds of its corporate efficiency and brand power. The article provides plenty of fuel for the haters, but the description of Nickelback’s (relatively) no-frills stage setup bears some passing similarities to Minutemen’s DIY underground philosophy of “jamming econo.” [ed. note: WHAT? NO.] Except, of course, an admirable (or necessary) money-saving move by an indie band becomes a greedy profit-builder for a corporate behemoth.

Raymond Biesinger is a respected Montreal-based illustrator and guitarist/singer for Edmonton punk band the Famines. Last year, Biesinger gave a talk at the University of Alberta called DOOM. The minute a musician accepts money from an audience, he argues, he or she becomes a “commercial artist.” The accessible means of music production, however, has flooded the market, while fans are reluctant to pay to hear it. I emailed Biesinger and asked him to explain.

“It’s this paradox that confuses me: that people might be excited about an artist’s music, but they’re very hesitant to allow that artist to make more music by giving them money,” he says. “It’s as if the respect for the music exists (the listener finds it, downloads it, enjoys it) but there’s a separation between the music and the human that made it. One is celebrated and enjoyed, the needs of the other is ignored. It’s ridiculous.”

The result is that musicians themselves actually become consumers, forced to spend more on gas, instruments, gear, production, and other expenses of musicianship than they make back. Essentially, they become “hobbyists.”

“I know that a hobbyist musician can do things that a dedicated professional can’t,” says Biesinger. “They can create in a complete vacuum, and not care about audience response. They can be clever and thrifty, or they can take another approach if they have a great job and pour resources into their hobby and not care about cash.”

“A full-time musician can do things an amateur can’t, too,” he continues. “They can physically practice and be immersed in music on a far greater scale than a hobbyist. They can put in more hours. Lots more. It’s just possible to develop a talent, a style, or a way of thinking more quickly if one can spend more time doing it.”

“If we lose either of these things, we’re in a worse place.”

Tags: Music, Featured, Interviews, News, Cat Power, Grizzly Bear, Indie, Jam Econo, Nickelback, Trendspotting

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