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Because albums are boring and for old people?
As for Flux's question - why so many ex-indie rockers seem over-invested in pop right now - I think there are a bunch of reasons. I think pop has just been really good for a few years now - better than it was for most of the 90s, at least - in large part because the division between black (urban) and white (pop proper) is breaking down and reinvigorating both genres. Even Herbert said something this year about it being a worry when the new Britney single is more interesting than most experimental music. And given most radio playlists, your taste tends to be self-reinforcing; if you start liking pop music and listen to more of it, you're unlikely to hear alternatives (just like you won't hear much *nsync on indie radio).
Second, indie is basically aimed at a young demographic, and I kind of assume that people have always passed onto mainstream pop after an indie period - but the net, and forums like ilm, have catalysed post-indie-pop-fandom into a quasi-subculture. Is there anything sadder than a middle-aged guy in a Ramones T-shirt? Tastes change, and the "aggregate of image, style and behaviour" you want from your music changes with it. At some point, indie rock fans stop needing to distinguish themselves from the kids who beat them up at school?
Of course, none of this addresses Flux's point that breaking things down into a pop/indie binary is self-defeating and reductive, but I'm not sure (outside arguments like this one) that's what people are doing. Almost nobody agrees where the dividing line is anyway - are the Vines, Avril, So Solid, the Strokes, Jay-Z, Wu-Tang, etc. pop or indie? It's a subjective judgement in a glut of micro-genres and hallucinated mainstreams.
I haven't heard the Girls Aloud track, though - I think we miss out on most of the English Popstar acts in Oz. But have you guys heard Selwyn (huge Aussie r&b star who was rejected from the second series of Popstars because he didn't fit with the judges' "concept")? |
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- on the radio, on a jukebox, or round a mate's place. I consider that music to be public access. It's not that I didn't like it, I just prefer it to be something I come across by accident, which enhances my appreciation no end. It's partly a reactionary stance against the fact that a lot of people told me I needed to like certain stuff, as if it belonged to some kind of hallowed canon of material that was beyond reproach. I had no problem with the artists concerned, just that it seemed everyone was intent on recycling the same old influences over and over and over again.