"Your So Indie-Rock, It's Almost An Art"

Tonight, while enjoying a funky-blue gatorade while watching The Artic Monkeys on Last Call with Carson Daly, I would like to take a moment to type about the battle between Indie and mainstream. Of course, an infinite amount of books could written on this subject on only one form of media. I'm going to use music examples because I'm sucha rookie when it comes to filmmaking that I don't think I can generate very good film examples.

To be indie, or not to be indie, that is the question. For the record, I'm not talking about high budget versus low budget necessarily, I'm talking about accessibility. What I'm referring to is when an artist has to decide whether to go for something comfortably polished and popular, or for something more challenging that is more likely to target the smaller "hipper" audience. This audience is sometimes disdainfully called "The Hipper Than Thou Audience".

Personally, after years of listening to mainstream rock bands like 3 Doors Down and Creed when I was younger, I now tend to favor alternate or so called "indie" rock to the post-grunge bands that top the mainstream charts. However, just because I favor a band such as Manchester Orchestra over Saving Abel doesn't mean I refuse to listen to something popular, I just find the alternative artists to be more interesting than mainstream artists the majority of the time.

However, I sometimes find that bands on the quest for authenticity can be a negative thing. For instance, I saw an interview with the drummer 1970s punk band Crass and he went on and on about much it bothered him seeing Joe Strummer getting out of a jumbo jet. If I was the interviewer I'd ask him, "Who really cares?" Crass was always a brilliant band, but I think their avant garde style is sometimes a bit much for me.

Last question, Why was "Since You Been Gone" by Kelly Clarkson a hit? Kelly Clarkson is a great vocalist, but that song is not catchy at all to me.