Bandwagon

I wrote this for my seminar blog. All the quotes, save the last one, is from The Commitments and absolutely fabulous book which you should all read.

It's been awhile. I know it's been awhile. But I have a feeling The Commitments is going to make up for my lapse.

"Jimmy knew what was new, what was new but wouldn't be for long and what was going to be new."
Ever since the beginning of popular music, I suspect there has been an "indie-er than thou" crowd. When Stephen Foster hit it big, I truly believe there were some people who said "I knew him and liked him when he was nothing." This crowd though might be more prevalent starting sometime after though the Beatles simply because that's when people started really caring about "the next big thing" and knowing of "the next big thing" before anyone else. Knowing the Rolling Stones before anyone else added to a person's "indie" "cred" and knowing who the Libertines are (still, and after beforehand) adds even more to a person's indie cred. And let me tell you it's all about the indie cred.
The NME (as all the proper Brits call it) is the bible of "indie-er than thou." They, much like Jimmy (as compared to Derek and Outspan), know what's what. They declare what's what in fact and also declare what's not, something that usually happens after six months (or less depending on how truly terrible the band/artist is). There are other such publications and websites that declare things and everyone who knew about the highlighted band declares themselves more indie than the rest of the world (mwhahahaha.)
"Jimmy always got genuinely angry whenever Top of the Pops was mentioned although he never missed it."
The thing though, about being indie-er than thou is that there are a few guilty secrets in everyone's closet. There's a band in every elitists iPod that they wouldn't want anyone to know about. Songs that the cool crowd wouldn't approve of (such as the whole Keane catalogue) and would mean the stripping of any indie cred you might have if anyone found out. So you hide your Keane CDs and rain scorn upon them whenever possible ("Tom Chaplin was in rehab? God what a..."). Such is the way of the elitist. Insist that you knew band X before anyone else and deny that you love and have been to multiple concerts of band Y.
"So get off the bandwagon, and put down the handbook" (Arctic Monkey, "Fake Tales of San Francisco")