"You know nothing about art or sex that you couldn't read in any trendy, New York, underground fashion magazine" -"Admit It," Say Anything

I believe that with being an indie artist, authenticity is the only thing defines you. It seems to be that the way indie music "sounds," though styles and themes may change, has been predetermined. Indie music can be picked out of a 1000 song catalog by Indie enthusiasts over your typical, everyday top-40 songs. Indie music is often self-produced, self-authored and self-invested. Everything done to an Indie song has a purpose above making every instrument quantized and pitch corrected. Though auto-tune can be found in a great deal of Indie records, it is not done to enhance the production value of said song. It is done to add to the atmosphere of the composition.

There is a great divide among "keeping it real" in Indie music. I haven't quite figured out what the Indie world has against making music, but it seems like the minute an Indie artist turns a profit on their music, they have sold out. When I discover a band that none of my friends have heard of, I face an internal dilemma. I want all of my friends to hear the music, but at the same time I am afraid that the music will become too well-liked that it will become a mainstream success. I remember when Death Cab For Cutie's "You Can Play These Songs With Chords" showed up on the shelves of my local Newbury Comics. This album has an immaculate cover of Morrisey's "This Charming Man," which is what immediately attracted me to this band. I loved how Death Cab's music was vastly different from virtually every other album I had heard at that point in every facet. Their production values were extremely high, though it sounded just like the demo tapes that local bands were passing out. Their music was sophisticated (and it still is), which is partly what made the relatively minor-league "sound" of the album seem irrelevant.

As Western culture moved in and out of the punk-pop fad, it seemed like the up and coming fad after punk-pop was listening to artists that no one had heard of before. It became a status point in a way if you were listening to a scarce artist or genre, which immediately made it popular. When "the OC" made its television debut back in the day, the character Seth Cohen referred to Death Cab on a number of occasions. The band even made a live appearance on the show. All of a sudden, the band I raved about for so long that my friends wouldn't stop playing their Sum 41 CDs to listen to became the new thing. Since then, Death Cab has played to mammoth-sized crowds and sold tremendous amounts of records. Their production value has gone up with each release and with that so has their popularity. The question still haunts, however, if Death Cab for Cutie sold out. My answer is "no." I believe that if popular culture never picked up on Ben Gibbard's song writing that the band would have released the same music that they've released post pop culture exposure. Though some fans of the band may call them "sell outs" for turning a profit on their music, they have continued to stay authentic in the sense that the music they are making sounds dramatically different from anything on the radio today, yet something about them still appeals to the pop culture crowd. If selling out means making music that millions of people love and being able to support one's self because of it, then Death Cab for Cutie has absolutely 100% sold out.

One last point of contention: The Beach Boys made surf music that sky-rocketed their popularity. Brian Wilson hated surf music and hated the beach. In fact, the only members of the Beach Boys that lived that lifestyle were drummer Dennis Wilson and singer Mike Love. As soon as the band released "Pet Sounds," their popularity in the states seemed to drop. Brian Wilson composed some of his most authentic songs to date on that album and was criticized for it. With that said, who can truly define "keeping it real" and what is and is not authentic?