The distance between what was formerly considered underground and mainstream has been steadily closing in the last few years. A decade ago, only a handful of acts in the United States, such as Nirvana, Beck and Weezer, had taken indie source material and turned it into platinum sales. The kinder times of the new millennium have made successes out of artists ranging from the Flaming Lips to Bright Eyes, and even retroactively to the Pixies.
Artists that would have had a following among only the cognoscenti years ago can now hope to feed themselves and maintain their stylish faux-hawks on their musician's wages alone. But as much as this current trend toward musical unity is heartening and important for our country in these troubled times, it would be purely optimistic to think that it's going to last.
Just as the large number of good Prog-Rock bands (Pink Floyd) and bad Prog-Rock bands (Kansas) in the 1970s led to the punk rebellion, the New Wave hegemony of the '80s was the first thing the Pixies and other college rockers left in the dust. Tomorrow's artists will also strike out in a bold new direction.
By the time the New Wave/Indie Pop/Post-Punk revival reaches its saturation point, probably sometime after the Killers' Brandon Flowers is elected president and voted Time's Man of the Year for teaching us all to love again, the action will be somewhere else. I know this because a friend of mine who goes to school in New York (from whence trends are rumored to originate) complained that most of his friends now refused to go to anything than avant-garde noise shows where men tap on and cough into a microphone for 45 minutes. Five years from now, the incredulous question on the lips of everyone's hipster friends could be 'Eww, you listen to music'?
In the progressive tradition of the University of Wisconsin, I propose we take the helm of this bold new movement, whatever it may be. I dream of a new age for music like the early 20th century for the visual arts, an age when every band is so abstract that music fans will have to read absurd manifestos to figure out what the hell anybody is talking about. This is why I am founding the 'Boohbah Dance Brigade.'
Bringing together disparate elements of dance, paramilitary maneuvers and psychedelic children's television, the Boohbah Dance Brigade (BDB, for short) will change music forever. Our performances will feature men in military uniforms dancing like rhythm-challenged five-year-olds while attempting to obey commands broadcast on the surface of a glowing sphere suspended above the stage. In keeping with our slogan, 'One step ahead of sound,' all performances will be completely silent. Our albums will consist of 1,114 blank tracks. Why 1,114? Because 11/14 is Joseph McCarthy's birthday.
Our manifesto will read: 'The Boohbah Dance Brigade believes that things which cannot be expressed in words should not be expressed at all. And same goes for things that can.'
The good news for all of you is that for the next several months, the BDB will be accepting cash donations in exchange for later confirming that you were in fact 'down with BDB since the beginning.' You'll receive praise and Indie cred as soon as the Brigade takes the world by storm. That kind of association doesn't usually come cheap and should last for at least two years, possibly even more if Urban Outfitters doesn't co-opt our sound. Or lack thereof.
