First Night Out

So... a 6am wake up call for work, two Berocca and a splitting headache later, here I am back at this blogging task. All in all decent night, didnt spend too much which was a good thing. What I learnt last night about the indie/alternative scene although was complicated by merely trying to characterise the scene itself. However, I was able to break it down to a few things; the people, the music and the attire. These features really stood out to me due to the way that they inderectly fondled with eachother, but at the same time were not always a necessity. It wasnt until I actually contemplated this from a semi-academic/educational level, that it really became evident how pretentious this culture could be. Whilst one would like to think most people at the gig were there to truely support the band, in most cases it really didnt come across that way at all.

Whilst im not the hugest music gig/festival/concert fanatic, I do hold an appreciation for music and the valliant efforts of aspiring local bands. This may been deemed slightly bias as I was friends with one of the band members, but I can definately say I was atleast there to support them. This didnt seem the case for others however. Upon entering the valley studios and going to the bar I was approached by a stranger who asked me, "Oi mate... do you know who is playing tonight?" This raised two things to me. Firstly, myself questioning the competence of this persons abilty to read considering the adequate amount of posters advertising who was playing. But more importantly, this guy clearly wasnt here to support the bands which was evident by his lack of knowledge as demonstrated above... so why was he there? I didnt dare ask him this personally but it did get me thinking.

Surveying the area, band playing in the background, it was quite clear that alot of people seemed to be taking no interest in who was playing at all. To my left a group of girls chatting away to themselves, and to my right a group of people leaning up against one of the walls clearly unenthralled by what was going on. Why were these people here? I should mention at this point that there was a cover charge to get into the valley studies that night... so why are these people paying money to gain entry to a place which associated itself with the bands playing that night... to not even watch them. Were they just careless with their money? Or were they there for alternative reasons?

This is when I really started to look at the Indie/alternative culture as "a scene" and this premise of "scenesters" prevails. As described by urban dictionary (not the most academical source but non the less gets the message across), "Scenesters encapsulate the sub-culture of a particular musical genre. One heavily relies on aesthetics and sartorial image to signify adherence to a particular scene". Judging from what I had seen last night, it is clear that the indie/alternative culture has become plagued with these scenesters.

After looking over what I have said, it is fair enough that one may say I am sitting on my high horse, but these are just merely my observations. It is evident that the indie culture has some clear lack of associations between its characteristics anymore. Where I once used to think the attire and the people were once a derivative of the music itself, it appears now that they have stripped themselves away from the music creating their own little subculture which doesn't necessarily need to involve the music.