Songkick

Sasha Frere-Jones in The New Yorker: ‘But by the mid-nineties black influences had begun to recede, sometimes drastically, and the term “indie rock” came implicitly to mean white rock. Pavement, a group that the Village Voice rock critic Robert Christgau, in 1997, called “the finest rock band of the nineties—by critical acclamation,” embodied this trajectory.’

Ann Powers, et al in the LA Times: ‘But ‘[Frere-Jones'] piece is being read in the present tense, when in fact indie rock right now, like pop in general, is strikingly hybridized. This cross-fertilization is one of the most positive aspects of pop today. It’s been renewed by a love of dancing, cross-cultural collaborations forged on the Web, and the ever-growing diversity of fans themselves.’

It all winds down to how you define indie rock. The narrower, college rock/English major rock definition (Death Cab, Wilco, The Decemberists) vs. anything that would be reviewed in Pitchfork, but not present in the Billboard top 100 (Burial, M.I.A., CSS). I’m glad it’s hard to define.

White
Wilco – Jesus, etc.

Not exactly white
M.I.A. – Paper Planes

Am I black or white?
Michael Jackson – Black or White