2024 has certainly been an odd year, partly since it doesn’t feel like 2024 at all. We’re caught in the peak of the y2k fever, with every part of 2000’s culture being picked back up and played with, from pop-punk, bucket hats, baggy jeans and more. But, deeper in the clubs and discos of New York, where the “it” girls and boys call home, there is a scene brewing, reminiscent of a seemingly long-lost genre… indie sleaze.
Indie sleaze refers to the period in the noughties when New York was a hotbed for new indie talent. This saw groups experiment more with electronic elements, developing genres such as dance-punk, art-rock and electroclash. Just a sample of musicians during this period include LCD Soundsystem, The Strokes, Grimes, MGMT and Crystal Castles, each utilising new, unique sounds to satisfy a new generation of party-goers.
There has been a recent surge in groups delivering a fresh take on these aesthetics and sounds, and they have become very popular very quickly. A few months ago, the duo Mgna Crrrta shared a DJ set with Kesha, as did enfant-terrible of the scene The Dare (more on him later!) with Charli XCX. A few months layer, he would be spotted at her birthday party. Lil Uzi Vert collaborated last year with Snow Strippers, a duo that has become the unofficial face of the new movement. It’s clear that the scene is on the verge of being “the next big thing”. The origins of the revival could be the cause of the general sense of ennui during the pandemic, where a return to partying and hedonism was on everyone’s mind. This, along with its subversive nature that contrasts the stadium-ready EDM from the likes of Fred Again, set it apart and made it ripe to be picked to be the soundtrack of the y2k-comeback.
Perhaps the most startling thing about indie sleaze is how new it is. The term “indie sleaze” was only retrospectively given to the sound of the noughties in 2021, by an Instagram account of the same name (@indiesleaze). Posting pictures of the fashion, musicians and behind-the-scenes clips from the period, it has been pivotal in creating an online presence for the resurgence of y2k. What this has created is an aestheticised genre, where image has come before sound. A that comes from nostalgia-baiting posts for people to share with the caption “literally me” is perhaps not the most natural of genres.
And that leads us back to The Dare. Despite having only five songs to his name, he has become perhaps the de-facto figure of the scene. His songs are compositions consisting of groovy, thumping electronica and his signature talk-singing, with lyrics so blunt and filled with debauchery, they border on parody. On Girls, he yelps “ I like the girls that do drugs/ Girls with cigarettes in the back of the club/ Girls that hate cops and buy guns/ Girls with no buns, girls that’s mean just for fun”. It’s hard to tell if he’s being ironic in a cool and edgy way. Or maybe he knows that he’s cool enough to get away with lyrics like these. Which in turn makes him cooler. But that’s all it is, a spiral of coolness that is nevertheless hollow and clearly a facade. As Pitchfork said best (in a review which they handed him a 5.8), “it’s trying so hard to not try hard”. It’s all an aesthetic, image before sound.
That’s not to say there aren’t any innovators in the scene. People like 2hollis and The Hellp are certainly both inspired by the original indie sounds of the 2000s, but they only use these as a springboard in their music. 2hollis creates loud, glitchy music that’s as much inspired by Chief Keef as Crystal Castles. The Hellp, who have been active well before the “indie sleaze” term popped up, have publicly denounced the label. There are plenty of other artists that have started making music before the term first appeared or are making boundary-pushing music that have nonetheless become lazily categorised into the catch-all term, stripping away any uniqueness and personality they may have once had.
And so we are left with perhaps one of the first genres of music to have truly been birthed by “vibes” alone. An amalgamation of Spotify playlist fodder ready to hit the Y2K revival market, to make you feel like you’re cool too. The Dare has a lyric where he flexes “I’m in the club while you’re online”. But maybe the club has been online this whole time.
-Leo
Real.