The "Indie Nerd" movement

HolocaustHybrid · 10-25-2007, 11:48 AM

I feel the need to let off some steam about this, as it has bothered me for some time now: nerdy characteristics are finally being recognized as, in many ways, beneficial. Much of what used to get me beatings from my classmates back in the Dark Ages is now a desirable social image to aspire to, especially in college. Now, this in itself is not a bad thing; the problem comes in with how 'nerd' is defined and interpreted.

It is unfortunately being brought to the masses through the lens of the latest 'vogue' clique, the "Indie" movement. Now usually "Indie" at its core refers to independently released music, but given how that material tends towards deviation from main stream formulae of appeal, it is now widely thought to mean any obscure band. It has under its umbrella a collection of experimental rock, synthetic pop and folk en masse, though these distinctions often get blurred by the active attempts by the bands to be genre-defying rather than defining.

I will here be fielding the definition of the "Indie" moment as expanded from music to all arts, as in my observations so far, a true adherent of the clique takes the same attitude towards literature, painting, music, etc. The attitude is exactly the problem I wish to address, but in order to do so, let me take you back to a time before nerds of any kind had credibility.

I'm sure some of you are old enough to remember what I'm talking about; the kids chastising you because you'd rather head on down to the arcade and play Arkanoid or Centipede than play football, no one being willing to admit that they were impressed if you cleared Megaman without dying once on Guts Man's lifts. Could you write some mean software for your college lab's computers? Too bad, didn't matter to anyone who didn't sit in the lab with you. Why was it like this if nerds rule the world? Because this stuff had niche appeal. A lot of people lack the patience or intellect to really grasp the things that nerds find enjoyable, and it simply becomes frustration. Furthermore, there isn't really room for much fandom because watching someone play a video game is not very exciting unless they're about to beat the recorded high scores.

Nerds did not enjoy these activities BECAUSE they were hard to get into for most people, however. We enjoyed it because we were good at that sort of stuff, and it gave us relaxing ways to exercise our unique talent sets outside the job field. This is something the new nerd-popularizing trend has missed; and here's why, because it has come into vogue at the same as the Indie movement.

Now, what, you might ask, does the Indie movement have to do with the corruption of true nerdlike behavior? Simple; the Indie movement as a social force (note that I do not here blame everyone who listens to Indie music, some of which actually has value) touts itself as an intelligentsia movement. When it takes up the tradition of the nerd for itself, it turns our appreciation of obscure joys into an appreciation of obscurity itself. Nerds as most people of my generation will recall their definition, did not get mainstream popularity at any point, so the "Indie Nerd" actively defies the mainstream as part of the 'rebellious' aspect of this generational fad.

The result is, to me, frankly quite distasteful. Rather than simply being able to appreciate anything for what it is, they have to overanalyze it to death. If the material is 'difficult' enough or obscure enough, it wins a seal of approval even if the viewer/listener/player doesn't even enjoy it! In college, these kids will inevitably acquire a degree or at least minor in Art History, Music Theory or Literary History, and almost as often they'll have some kind of Philosophy education.

This is in pursuit of the image of the refined intellectual who is 'smart' enough to turn his nose up at 99% of people, ideas and art and drop obscure names here and there to sound deeply knowledgeable or as if they have exquisite taste. The more they intellectualize life just for the hell of it, the less they appreciate, and they field the 'hey, nerds are finally getting some love!' angle as their justification. Do not be fooled! These are not nerds, but faux-nerds. A nerdvante-garde, if you will.

Case in point: recently I was referred to a band called "Iron & Wine" by a friend of mine. I sampled a record's worth of the music and found that none of it was much to my liking; when I told him this, he proceeded to say "It's definitely an acquired taste, it doesn't have the easy-to-follow pop feel to it." And all I could think was how odd of a statement that was, like some kind of justification for it being great and I simply didn't 'get it'. Now, I'm no music theorist, but despite my somewhat slummy upbringing, the vast majority of my family is musically talented and I have been raised owing a great deal to music. My tastes are considered the broadest in the family and I have never rejected a song on the basis of genre. As such, I feel safe in saying that if you don't like a song, it's not automatically because you 'don't get it'; in this case I simply didn't like the damn music. It didn't sound good to my ears.

It's elitism, and it's insulting not just to the people who get snubbed for not conforming (and even the mighty "Indie" pseudo-intellects have become conformists to a clique), but to the nerds who are being packaged and popularized unfairly. Why should someone, in order to be smart, simply dislike more and work harder to enjoy what he allows himself? Why is my music taste 'tainted by the mainstream' simply because I don't limit myself to material that is 30+ years old or has never sold more than 50,000 albums? Why must I be 'wise' enough to find minimalist sculpture interesting, yet 'uneducated' because the band "TV on the Radio" doesn't sound revolutionary to me?

And most of all, why, if they're so damn smart that they can tout themselves as 'nerds', do they still make fun of me for enjoying a little table-top'ing or just doing the fun nerd stuff that doesn't have to 'change the way I think, man'?

t3hDarkness · 10-26-2007, 12:29 AM

Good Bob, this man speaks truth.

STOP LOOKING AT ME · 10-26-2007, 09:52 AM

You see a Faux-Nerd you give him the real nerd treatment

What do I mean? Why, the Swirley of course, preferably in the dirtiest toilet on campus.

10-25-2007, 11:48 AM	#1
HolocaustHybrid Junior Member Join Date: Jul 2004 Posts: 129 Thanks: 0 Thanked 19 Times in 5 Posts Points: 4,278.24 Bank: 1,040.34 Total Points: 5,318.58 Donate	The "Indie Nerd" movement I feel the need to let off some steam about this, as it has bothered me for some time now: nerdy characteristics are finally being recognized as, in many ways, beneficial. Much of what used to get me beatings from my classmates back in the Dark Ages is now a desirable social image to aspire to, especially in college. Now, this in itself is not a bad thing; the problem comes in with how 'nerd' is defined and interpreted. It is unfortunately being brought to the masses through the lens of the latest 'vogue' clique, the "Indie" movement. Now usually "Indie" at its core refers to independently released music, but given how that material tends towards deviation from main stream formulae of appeal, it is now widely thought to mean any obscure band. It has under its umbrella a collection of experimental rock, synthetic pop and folk en masse, though these distinctions often get blurred by the active attempts by the bands to be genre-defying rather than defining. I will here be fielding the definition of the "Indie" moment as expanded from music to all arts, as in my observations so far, a true adherent of the clique takes the same attitude towards literature, painting, music, etc. The attitude is exactly the problem I wish to address, but in order to do so, let me take you back to a time before nerds of any kind had credibility. I'm sure some of you are old enough to remember what I'm talking about; the kids chastising you because you'd rather head on down to the arcade and play Arkanoid or Centipede than play football, no one being willing to admit that they were impressed if you cleared Megaman without dying once on Guts Man's lifts. Could you write some mean software for your college lab's computers? Too bad, didn't matter to anyone who didn't sit in the lab with you. Why was it like this if nerds rule the world? Because this stuff had niche appeal. A lot of people lack the patience or intellect to really grasp the things that nerds find enjoyable, and it simply becomes frustration. Furthermore, there isn't really room for much fandom because watching someone play a video game is not very exciting unless they're about to beat the recorded high scores. Nerds did not enjoy these activities BECAUSE they were hard to get into for most people, however. We enjoyed it because we were good at that sort of stuff, and it gave us relaxing ways to exercise our unique talent sets outside the job field. This is something the new nerd-popularizing trend has missed; and here's why, because it has come into vogue at the same as the Indie movement. Now, what, you might ask, does the Indie movement have to do with the corruption of true nerdlike behavior? Simple; the Indie movement as a social force (note that I do not here blame everyone who listens to Indie music, some of which actually has value) touts itself as an intelligentsia movement. When it takes up the tradition of the nerd for itself, it turns our appreciation of obscure joys into an appreciation of obscurity itself. Nerds as most people of my generation will recall their definition, did not get mainstream popularity at any point, so the "Indie Nerd" actively defies the mainstream as part of the 'rebellious' aspect of this generational fad. The result is, to me, frankly quite distasteful. Rather than simply being able to appreciate anything for what it is, they have to overanalyze it to death. If the material is 'difficult' enough or obscure enough, it wins a seal of approval even if the viewer/listener/player doesn't even enjoy it! In college, these kids will inevitably acquire a degree or at least minor in Art History, Music Theory or Literary History, and almost as often they'll have some kind of Philosophy education. This is in pursuit of the image of the refined intellectual who is 'smart' enough to turn his nose up at 99% of people, ideas and art and drop obscure names here and there to sound deeply knowledgeable or as if they have exquisite taste. The more they intellectualize life just for the hell of it, the less they appreciate, and they field the 'hey, nerds are finally getting some love!' angle as their justification. Do not be fooled! These are not nerds, but faux-nerds. A nerdvante-garde, if you will. Case in point: recently I was referred to a band called "Iron & Wine" by a friend of mine. I sampled a record's worth of the music and found that none of it was much to my liking; when I told him this, he proceeded to say "It's definitely an acquired taste, it doesn't have the easy-to-follow pop feel to it." And all I could think was how odd of a statement that was, like some kind of justification for it being great and I simply didn't 'get it'. Now, I'm no music theorist, but despite my somewhat slummy upbringing, the vast majority of my family is musically talented and I have been raised owing a great deal to music. My tastes are considered the broadest in the family and I have never rejected a song on the basis of genre. As such, I feel safe in saying that if you don't like a song, it's not automatically because you 'don't get it'; in this case I simply didn't like the damn music. It didn't sound good to my ears. It's elitism, and it's insulting not just to the people who get snubbed for not conforming (and even the mighty "Indie" pseudo-intellects have become conformists to a clique), but to the nerds who are being packaged and popularized unfairly. Why should someone, in order to be smart, simply dislike more and work harder to enjoy what he allows himself? Why is my music taste 'tainted by the mainstream' simply because I don't limit myself to material that is 30+ years old or has never sold more than 50,000 albums? Why must I be 'wise' enough to find minimalist sculpture interesting, yet 'uneducated' because the band "TV on the Radio" doesn't sound revolutionary to me? And most of all, why, if they're so damn smart that they can tout themselves as 'nerds', do they still make fun of me for enjoying a little table-top'ing or just doing the fun nerd stuff that doesn't have to 'change the way I think, man'? Last edited by HolocaustHybrid; 10-26-2007 at 12:44 AM.

10-26-2007, 12:29 AM	#2
t3hDarkness Senior Member Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: The more innocent and pure a thing is, The more satisfying it is to corrupt. Gender: Posts: 4,943 Thanks: 52 Thanked 223 Times in 161 Posts Points: 75.28 Bank: 183,484.46 Total Points: 183,559.74 Donate	Good Bob, this man speaks truth.

10-26-2007, 09:52 AM	#3
STOP LOOKING AT ME Senior Member Join Date: Sep 2000 Location: YOU SAID THAT YOU KNEW ME AND I BELIEVED YOU DID Gender: Posts: 9,247 Thanks: 267 Thanked 585 Times in 430 Posts Blog Entries: 7 Points: 6,601.14 Bank: 74,653.97 Total Points: 81,255.10 Donate	You see a Faux-Nerd you give him the real nerd treatment What do I mean? Why, the Swirley of course, preferably in the dirtiest toilet on campus.