The Yindy Killer?

Today Austin-5000 alerted us all to the ‘Chav’ trend and, consequently, to the vast amount of practically guilt-free fun to be had by scrutinizing people based on their social class, but moreover the idiosyncratic style (artifice) adopted by said peoples. It is (sort of) on this note that I present this article, which tackles yet another sub-cultural group – Yindy. Obviously, this is short for “yuppie indy.” And, as the article states,

“They are well employed, or endowed with trust funds. They think chic gizmos (like digital cameras and iPods) go best with indie rock. And while their tastes are a little more stylish than the mainstream, they’re also sort of bland, boring and interchangeable.”

It’s this kind of ‘Death Cab” listening, blog-posting, Urban shopping species of human that makes me feel guilty for listening to an ipod, blogging, and shopping at Urban…activities that I do enjoy but do not wish to have define me or pigeon-hole me into a stereotype of commodity fetishism. We can ask what kind of risk are we taking when it comes to them opening a potential floodgate with a Billy Joel revival, or perhaps a Spike Jonze/David Eggers/Tom Hanks collaboration and of course, I reserve my right to protest this and any attitude that could lead to its actualization; it disgusts me to think of a sector of the culture that has basically set itself up to be stereotyped into its own brand like this, but at the same time strips culture of many of the things I, personally, find redeeming about culture (excluding Death Cab. Fuck them).

But More Importantly, it is interesting to note how this stereotype seems to be intricately linked to blog culture and the news media…..I’m wondering what kind of mutual impact these sources are truly having on one another, i.e. how much the media is catering to this outlet, and to what extent this outlet presents a unique and new way for the media to bias itself and set itself up for yet more conservative opposition. The article jokes about how one of the ways Yindies will change the world will be that the NYTimes will be soon presented in blog format, with "all weekday articles be reported in the form of top-10 lists following the inverted triangle format — wacky bits at the top, mundane shit at the end. (Stories about George Bush inevitably begin by quoting a funny malapropism, and conclude with the daily body count in Iraq.)" Joking aside, this is an interesting angle to consider, especially given that we are all super fond of the blog format as of late. What does this imply about us, oh fellow ipod listeners? We can ask, how are we economically situated to easily, haphazardly even, take such a grand part in this trend?

We can probably all agree that Yindies are a real and serious problem that needs to be tackled. While posing no literal threat, they contribute little, and on occasion have been seen to detract from any sense of real culture left behind the façade of commodification and relentless consumerism. Some of you (you know who you are) may argue that in postmodernity, nothing does, in fact, exist behind this façade, that the façade is the reality (insert random Baudrillard quote here) and this may indeed be the case. I have yet to make up my mind (partly because ambivalence is a necessary corollary to postmodernity, or perhaps because I have read too much on both sides to have formed an unbiased opinion of my own), but this is besides the point. The point being, if this is this a cultural risk we want to take, what are the implications? The article is tongue-in-cheek, of course, like this post. But it raises interesting questions as to what types of factors control the image that we project as a culture, and whether control of these images is possible in late capitalism. Anyway, food for thought.

And kudos to “LA Weekly” for lashing out against their own target audience. Ballsy, especially for an image driven sector of the market such as the monstrosity that is LA.