When
I listen to Arcade Fire's title track “The Suburbs,” I'm hit with
a feeling that I can unjustly reduce to something along the lines of
nostalgia. The nostalgia is hard for me deconstruct, pinpoint where
it's coming from, and I don't feel the need to do so: that's what
makes the experience meaningful, artful, expansive enough that I can
visit it many times over, feeling a similar but different way with
each listen.
The
Suburbs was inspired by Win and Will Butler's youth in a Houston
suburb. In an interview they state the album's lyrics are “neither
a love letter to, nor an indictment of, the suburbs – it's a letter
from the suburbs. [1]” They are reflecting on times past, when they
were free of adult-like responsibilities but confined by their social
space. Win recollects that "a
lot of [his] heroes from Bob Dylan to Joe Strummer were suburban kids
who had to pretend they were train-hoppers their whole lives. Talking
about an experience and not make-believe [is what we're doing on The
Suburbs]. [2]"
Did
I grow up in the suburbs? Yes. Did I feel restless, bored, like
nothing ever happened? At times. But, surprisingly, I wasn't
particularly angsty about it, and I don't look back at my adolescence
wishing it was different or thinking it was wasted. So if growing up
in the suburbs as a privileged youth wasn't mind-blowingly awesome
but certainly wasn't awful (not even close), then why do I feel
nostalgic listening to songs about kids running through their
neighborhoods but not away? Why do I feel this way when Bradford Cox
sings about being saved by old times? Or when I listen to M83 songs
about young French love on Saturdays?
I
feel elements of empathy when I listen to bands like Arcade Fire,
Deerhunter, M83, etc., but I think their music evokes a broader
pathos that I've resigned to calling nostalgia. Their lyrics require
careful listening – the vocals and meanings are often obscured –
and are emotionally rewarding in different ways. Their sounds like
all sounds are derivatives of old sounds. Win made an analogy,
stating that The Suburbs is like Depeche Mode meets Neil Young [3].
I've heard several people say that Saturdays = Youth was made
for a John Hughes' film. While some bands purposefully reproduce
sounds to evoke nostalgia, other bands create nostalgia organically with or
without borrowing from the past.
I'm
going to say that Arcade Fire, Deerhunter, and M83 are artful bands
that create organic nostalgia. There are many other bands that I've
left out, and there are many bands that evoke this sentiment in some
people but not others. I'm not sure whether it's my particular taste
in music, but I feel that this organic nostalgia is a key theme in
contemporary indie music that hits a strong chord with this
generation of music listeners. To define this generation of music listeners is a long and difficult task. I've found this article to be informative, however:
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