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These days the term 'indie' is little more than a generic sonic description for any band that plays guitars and probably wears skinny ties, skinny jeans, and skinny cardigans. Collins, a former NME writer and ex-editor of Q, says now: "'Indie' has become a meaningless term. It just covers guitar bands. But it was never meant to be about a type of music, it wasa spirit and an attitude. When I glance around the bands that are supposedly 'indie' today, I don't see any attitude. I don't see any content in their records, any political interest in the band members. They're a terrible generation, unfortunately, but they're becoming famous overnight and selling a lot of records. I've heard them called 'mortgage indie'. It's a career path – a way of making a lot of money very quickly. The Kooks did so well so quickly. Scouting For Girls, from a standing start, have become a really big band. The Fratellis have become massive in a remarkably short time."
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That about sums it up for me. Indie (and it's twin, emo) have seemed incredibly bland and banal to me pretty much from day one. I don't remember ever seeing an established scene in which bands sounded so much like each other. Hell, even a grunge's peak most of the bands sounded quite different.
It's not really the kid's fault, though. The record industry has gotten so adept at molding bands into exactly what they want them to be that real creativity doesn't stand a chance.
