The Obama era bands
3 min readSep 7, 2020
- I have a theory that the Obama era bands are emblematic of everything wrong with the era. Bands like the National, Arcade Fire, Band of Horses, Vampire Weekend, and LCD Soundsystem. represent the false promise of that era. The neoliberal promise wrapped in a sheen of progressive social messaging. The era’s bands, broadly speaking represent a class of people seemingly dominate and ascendant in 2012. The literate, urban, urbane, upper middle classes that began to dominate in large American cities. They represented the gradschool-isation of rock music. Theses are people who probably have read Marx or are at least passingly familiar with the Marxist-inflected critiques of Late Capitalism. Yet they remain emblematic of that era of leftists who might be intellectually aware of the limitations of the system they live under yet were more than happy to channel the angst they felt into music. Who would want to overthrow capitalism by organizing the workers when the art was this good and one could end up living in Park Slope?
- Grad students forming indie rock is not new or unusual to the genre in the 90’s or early 2000’s. However it is a far cry from the genres origins as an outgrowth of hardcore punk (bands such as Black Flag and Dinosaur Jr. remain key early influences) which was thoroughly rooted in working-class attitudes and angst.
- With this new crop of bands that emerged at the tail end of the Bush era when liberal-minded middle-class professionals could plausibly claim to have common cause with a lower-class tired and disgusted by the endless quagmire of failed Middle Eastern war. Wars whose consequences mostly fell on the working-class. This as well as well as the disastrous economic policies and increasing inequality that led to the 2008 financial crisis. The groundswell of support for Obama and the Democrats that lead to their historic electoral victory in 2008 seemed to harbinger a new era of progressive ascendence in politics. In which a broad swath of working-class and middle-class liberals worked towards progress in society.
- These bands seem to embody the promise of the Obama era when technocratic managers of the economy could nibble around the edges of capitalism to address issues like climate change, income inequality and addressing the legacies of racial inequities while maintaining capitals dominance over society.
- They also embody the reality of the postindustrial and post-crash dominance of large coastal cities over the rest of the country. The National and Arcade Fire are made up of members who started in suburbs in the middle of the country(Cincinnati and Houston respectfully), who then relocated to the artistic, cultural, and financial hubs of New York and Montreal. Win Butlers father even worked for oil giant Halliburton.
- All of the members of these bands were beneficiaries of the economic trends of the last half-century that have meant enrichment and growth for a few and economic stagnation and decline for many more. Mainly the divide between those who have advanced degrees and are a part of the Professional Managerial Class and those without mainly the Working class.
- During the recovery after the ’08 recession the Obama administration could truthfully point out that jobs were being recovered and that there was growth in an economy being overseen by his administration. Jobs in the gig-economy, being an Uber or Lyft driver. This took place in the large cities of America. What have the areas of the country ravaged by industrialization gotten?
- Listening to the National in 2020 is a strange experience, I recently listened to their 2018 Live performance of Boxer in Brussles, in which Matt Berninger reveals that he recently hugged Michelle Obama back stage, and that he still feels “amazing” because of it. This despite the rejection of the values of this class signified by the Trump election and the rise of right-wing extremism. It just seems the hight of hubris to not even offer a moment of self-reflection on why things might not have continued in the vain that these self-styled “important people” wanted things to go. Or why a broad segment of American and global society might not be as able to express their angst through a certain type of literate rock music while living in a suburban home and worrying about the mortgage.