Post-Dancetitude 2009 (which was a blast btw, for those of you who didn’t attend), I am trying my bestest to ditch hiphop, trash pop and re-embrace the soul-soothing tunes of indie music.
Now, since here in good ol’ little red dot there are only about 4 radio stations I know that play contemporary music, I consider all songs that make it to their playlists – mainstream. So then, how does one go about pretending to know about and listen to all things indie?
Step 1: Google is your best friend. Googling randomly in your free time does help uncover the rare gem or two, like how Kerrie introduced a very useful site to us some time back. From here on I would tell you to then search for the artist or song title on iTunes but what is about to follow below will directly contradict this sentence.
Step 2: Software like Ares and Limewire are your second tier best friends. This I say because the use of this type of software infringes on copyright laws one way or another so lest I be accused of encouraging illegal music downloading, let me discourage everyone from using the said softwares. However, in case you happen to be the incorrigible pirate, go ahead and type random phrases you think might pass off as a band name. You never know, seeing how “Up Up Down Down Left Right Left Right B A Start” IS an actual band whose debut album is “Worst Band Name Ever”. To top it all off, their music is actually somewhat decent though I think they’d be hard-pressed to find fame with such a mouthful for a band name.
Step 3: Make friends with Communications students (or anyone in that field). I try very hard not to stereotype or buy into them, but thus far people from this field tend to have the most interesting and tasteful musical preferences. I also know a couple of engineers and pharmacists whose choice of music I absolutely adore, but for the most part, please avoid business students. (And here comes the hate mail. :))
Step 2: Be cheap and browse Kinokuniya or HMV for overpriced specialty magazines to flip through. A few good examples would be Q Magazine, Rolling Stone, Blender, etc. More often than not, magazines give you a more focused insight on certain aspects of music, allowing you to delve deeper into what floats your boat and filter the trash. Plus you’re paying for it so the information you get is bound to come attached with some semblance of credibility.
Step 1: Take a cue from Garfield. When in doubt, act stupid. Most indie bands are indie bands because of the fact that nobody knows them to start with. Therefore, in my humble opinion, it’s perfectly acceptable to say “I’ve never heard of this band before!” and take up the other party’s invitation to give you a sampling. After all, nobody likes a pretentious know-it-all and this could be the chance you’ve been waiting for to spend a few geek moments with that crush of yours with amazing taste in music.
Turn off the radio for once, take out the Black Eyed Peas record in your player and go surfing around. And for those of you who share a network with like a million other people, did I mention iTunes has the library sharing function for a reason? :D
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