From various debates about the existence of an aughts nostalgia trend called “indie sleaze”1 to some highly clicked-on think pieces about “the secret gay history of indie rock”2 and producer Jack Antonoff’s infusion of indie rock conventions into today’s pop sound3, indie rock has recently been a renewed object of attention for music writers, industry professionals, and fans. Reading these takes, you get the sense that the consensus that indie rock is, if not conservative, at least risk-averse to the point of being basic. As Emma Madden writes,
Historically, indie rock has been the province of white, heterosexual males—a comparatively conservative genre that has kept many of its main players closeted…Its political disengagement has often expressed itself through a pose of disregard and emotional inertia; a self-conscious awkwardness, a restricted sexuality, a ceremonious stiffness. In other words: a heterosexual sensibility.
As Madden tells it,...
University of California Press