The 2010s are glorified by gen Z. But the ‘indie music’ of that era was unoriginal | Jamie Peck

So much of early 2000s ‘indie’ music was nothing but a backward-looking rerun of movements past

You’ve probably noticed it by now: the smeared makeup in fashion editorials, the “messy girl” style of gen Z celebrities like Olivia Rodrigo, and the dance-y, LCD Soundsystem-esque sound of artists like the Dare and … well, LCD Soundsystem, whose reunited lineup seems to be playing shows every night now.

The no-longer-so-niche pop star Charli xcx further foregrounded it with her breakout hit Brat this past summer, an album whose inescapable promotional cycle improbably combined an embrace by the Harris/Walz presidential campaign – cue Jake Tapper trying to explain “brat summer” to your parents – and a birthday party photographed by none other than aughts-era shutter bug the Cobrasnake in his trademark high-flash, low-res style.

Each artist … fits the mold of a bygone trope. Ryan Adams was the self-professed ‘wannabe beat poet guy,’ fitting the chain-smoking mold of folk predecessors like Bob Dylan; LCD Soundsystem saw James Murphy fusing rock sounds with electronic elements as had been covered ad nauseum [sic] through the 80s; and the Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ Karen O rocked the costume-heavy art-punk done 20 years prior by Wendy O and the Plasmatics.

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