Monday, February 9, 2009

Initial Topic Post: Providence's Rising Indie-Folk Scene


How would you define folk music? What about indie music? Yes, it is difficult since both genres are as broad as their influences. So are their scenes. Now imagine the trouble I'll go into when I try to define what Indie-Folk is. Yet, we all know that it is something. That something is what I will try to come across in this ethnographic research (which might be done with Alyssa, we don't know yet).
I came across the discovery that there actually exists a folk-indie scene when I, a few weeks ago, went to a show to listen to two local folk-indie bands: vio/miré and annikki dawn (it should be mentioned that both composed of the same band members). The show was small, warm, and intimate. The music was acoustic and sweet. Not your typical folk band, not your typical folk sound. Yet still.. folk. For a lack of a better term I will call it indie-folk. From this show, a curiosity was born to know if other bands such as these played in similar places; an urge to experience more of what I had experienced.
The crowd? You might call it a "hipster" crowd (something as hard to pin down as indie and folk, yet that I will attempt to define). But I've seen this crowd in other places, in other shows. Does this mean that this audience does not only belong to this scene? Or that the indie-folk scene is actually a sub-genre of something bigger and different? Or does this mean anything at all?
I don't know. But I will try to find out.


Some questions that will hopefully be answered:

What groups of people are attracted to this scene and why?
Is the audience for indie-folk shows exclusive for this genre or is it open to other kinds of music, and which kind?
What other bands belong to this scene? Are only local bands "allowed" to participate in this?
Why is this scene rising? Which are their influences?
What are common venues for these kinds of performances?
How are the interactions between the bands and their audience?
Is this type of interaction vital for the scene to survive?

3 comments:

  1. Hmmm indie-folk? That's an interesting mixture, but indie and folk, as you mentioned, are very broad genres so I suppose it was bound to happen (hopefully we won't see techno-folk mixtures in the future). While they have their differences, I think that "indie" and folk scenes are more compatible and able to produce a good mix because they are so big and diverse to begin with, so I wouldn't be surprised to see the "indie-folk" crowd in other places and at other shows. I doubt there will be many, if any, hardcore "I only listen to indie-folk" people out there because the crowd the subgenre attracts will probably like so much other music within the indie scene and/or the folk scene. After all, that's how one would discover this genre: through either indie or folk. - Sam Rosenfeld

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  2. Hey Dani. I like your idea, but the broad scope of your topic makes me fear that a few short months are not enough to take on such a complex scene.

    Folk is more easily defined than Indie, and at least until the "Freak Folk" of New York has some common tendencies. By definition, Indie music is really any group that is "Independent" from major record labels. However, in reading your topic post, I see you facing the same struggle as I do when thinking about Indie music; there is some sort of sound, some part of "the music itself" that is unifying. This sound is very hard to pinpoint, and I will be fascinated to see your results.

    As far as advice goes, I would recommend trying to compile a list of bands who identify as "indie-folk", and turning first to the music to try and find a unifying sound. I think this will make your fieldwork less frustrating, and you may be able to formulate some hypotheses that will help guide your research.

    Great topic! Really looking forward to seeing more.

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  3. Dani, I think you could address some of Chris's concerns by focusing very specifically on the Providence scene and even a couple of bands in particular (this seemed to be more the direction that Alyssa had in mind; it really might make sense for the two of you to work together, perhaps each focusing on one or two bands). I expect that you could learn a lot from simply cataloging the adjectives that fans tend to apply to these bands (as you start to do here yourself with small, warm, intimate, acoustic, sweet...). Also, keep an eye on John H's blog, since he is planning to address a somewhat similar topic with a Brooklyn focus.

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