Sufjan Stevens and Swedish Indie Pop: A Sermon on Overstimulation

The last few years have been good to me, when it comes to music. For one, I’ve really carved out “what I like” and “what I don’t like.” It’s not quite carved in stone, as I am proven wrong from time to time, but for the most part, I have particular tastes now. On top of that, the last few years have been ripe with albums of music I’ve grown to love. I love a few things in life: Midwestern second wave emo, prolific artists and indie pop. I’m here to talk to you today about two of those three things.

Prolific artists are often difficult, considering their nature. If they stick around for any length of time, they’re usually temperamental and their discography is very varied, to say the least. I can’t fault an artist for “wanting to grow,” but on the other hand, not being willing to grow is a sign that an artist is lazy. With Sufjan Stevens, things seemed different. Here was a guy that had put out two albums that did so-so and then announces that he’s going to do an album for each of the 50 states. He puts out the first one, and then does something else. People doubted him, but when Illinois came out, he was crowned the king of independent music. The sound of the two state records was much the same: beautiful, full and masterfully orchestrated pop for geeks. Sometimes I wonder why it’s being played on KROQ, but then again, I can’t question any of that, considering how many people list “Devandra Barnhart” on their Facebook profiles. In the span of a few years, Stevens released three full albums (two state albums and a full b-sides/demos collection) of amazing music. And they were damn long albums, too; all three clocked in at well over an hour. A few questions come up: where does it end and why am I so tired of it?

The same questions come up with Swedish indie pop bands. “Twee” pop and the likes somehow became the new rock and roll in Sweden overnight and no one seemed to notice. While the (International) Noise Conspiracy is recording their new album with Rick Rubin and the Hives are busy guesting on every hip-hop producer’s all-star tribute to himself, pop radio in Sweden is playing artists like Loney, Dear, Jens Lekman, Peter Bjorn and John and the list goes on and on. It’s getting hard for me to keep up, considering how much I really love the stuff. I realized how much there really was when I recently rediscovered a great album on my iPod by a band called I’m From Barcelona. The first few times I heard it, I thought it was derivative and cheap, but what isn’t, really? It takes some level of skill to write music and all that much more skill to be a part of a 26-piece band. I really want to believe that this isn’t some sort of trend or backlash from the rock and roll revolution of the late 90s, but I guess that’s just the way things work.

As we reconsider “where it all ends” and how oversaturated the market for indie pop in general is, we really have to look to the future. Overstimulation means it’s time for something new. It just scares me that within five years, I’m going to forget half of the stuff I’m listening to now, just because it isn’t in the indie rock majority anymore. So, what is the next big thing? Well, if I knew, I wouldn't be here, would I? I would probably be making money somewhere else.