SF0215 “It was 20 years ago today” 2006 Revisited

How different is 2006 from 2026 in independent and alternative music? Here are some suggestions.

2006 indie/alternative was a world of scarcity: limited access, gatekeepers, scenes, labels, physical media. 2026 is shaped by abundance: streaming overload, algorithmic discovery, direct distribution, constant content flow. In 2006 we found bands through physical magazines, personal recommendations and late-night radio. Maybe blogs and MySpace for some (not me). Buying a CD was still a relatively risky investment – 15 quid or 25 dollars for an album where you only knew one song; or possibly even none. Spotify, Tiktok and Youtube has dramatically reduced that risk. But maybe we identify less with these bands we haven’t had to work hard to access?

I’m by no means an expert on production, but, as I understand it, what characterises 2026 audio is hyper-clean digital and hybrid acoustic/electronic textures (it says here). Which is a long way from Franz Ferdinand and Arctic Monkeys’ sound space. DIY now means the computer not the garage (though ironically there are still just as many garage bands if you can find them).

The album is not dead yet, but 2026 is more song-centric. You see this most obviously in the barrage of singles and collaborations that get released.

Genre boundaries have now largely collapsed. In 2006 a band might be “post-punk revival” or “twee”. Now they might combine synth-pop, slowcore, trap percussion, ambient textures, post-punk basslines and folk songwriting. Sometimes all in the same track

Listening to the songs on this tracklist I’d say the lyrics were more “objective”. A bit more clever and emotionally guarded, perhaps. Now you could say that sounds like Dry Cleaning and you’d be right. But the zeitgeist also means that nowadays lyrics can be more vulnerable, confessional, deal more openly with anxiety and depression, have a more domestic focus. People are less afraid to sound earnest. Perhaps the removal of The Fall might have something to do with this?

And, of course, there are more songs about the digital as opposed to the physical world. It’s hard to imagine a song titled “Boredom” now. Less “meet me at the club queue,” more “I’m folding laundry while doomscrolling.”

Scenes might be a bit less geographic and more online now as well, meeting through Bandcamp and Discord. It’s harder now to hear a band and think, “That’s definitely from Melbourne.”

In 2006 indie still implied the label you were on, underground cred and an opposition to mainstream pop. Now it mostly describes an aesthetic or vibe. An artist can have millions of streams, major-label infrastructure, huge festival slots, and still be called indie. The term has become less economic and more stylistic. Arguably somewhat meaningless, when Taylor Swift or CharliXCX are described as “indie”.

But, differences aside, there were great tunes then and there are great tunes now. Different isn’t better or worse, it’s just a little bit different, that’s all.

Anyhow, see whether you agree as you listen to this.