Permeating The Indie Hip Hop Analysis

The final thing to understand about indie music to understand the role of “authenticity” is the characteristics of indie music. There are many different sub-genres of indie including indie rock, indie folk, indie hip-hop, etc. However, Fonarow describes some characteristics of indie music, she states “Permeating the indie tradition is an espousal of simplicity and austerity, a hyper-evaluation of childhood and childlike imagery, a nostalgic sensibility, a technophobia, and a fetishization of the guitar” (Fonarow 2006: 39). Fonarow can state these things but still there will be people who will break these characteristics. So, what else can unify these people as a group rather than them being just some individuals who like similar music? Another
Socially, there was a challenge toward the traditional idea of the masculinity of the working class man. This was because of what was going on economically which was a result of what was changing politically, this was something that was particularly affecting the working class. Working class laboring jobs were being moved rapidly out of the country and the service/information sector was replacing these jobs being moved away. Working class unemployment rose. The middle class was affected similarly. The government was being shrunk so the public sector was shrink and the private sector was being grown so many people were making the move from the typical middle class job of the public sector to the private sector (which was considered “selling-out” and becoming “yuppies”). Many of the indie artists came from a family with a military background and the privatization and restructuring that took place really affected them. Thus, this disruption of middle class and working class lives led to the emergence of a music world that emphasizes authenticity amid sellouts. Fonarow said “Indie is generally a middle-class phenomenon, yet it idealizes the working class with its supposed “authentic” experience” (Fonarow 2006: 52). So, these changes and uprooting at the time meant betrayal, insecurity and a general worsening of the lives of many young people (Bannister 2006: xvii). Philippe Bourgois in an article about drug dealers in Harlem talked about how economic changes like these can affect people particularly working class people. He talks about how they lose control in the service jobs from manufacturing jobs and having to deal more directly with a boss and the disrespect that is experienced in service jobs. There is no union to defend their rights and they cannot “publicly maintain their autonomy” in these service jobs