A 2000’s guide on how to party through life, resurrected in the modern day.
Indie Sleaze began in the late 2000’s as a cultural and artistic movement, spawned from a chemical reaction of multiple factors. First was the commercialisation of pop music. Which stripped any personality or emotion out of music and turned it into this mainstream, copy and pasted, over sanitised product with no room for creative freedom. Second was the birth of social media. Sites like MySpace allowed niche communities to form and underground artists to reach their audience without the need for corporate labels. Finally was this cultural shift within young people. The rise of the “party scene” led people to a more care-free, bohemian lifestyle where they resented big corporations and celebrated punk artists, aesthetics and ideals.
People abandoned everything mainstream and the rule book went out the window. Everything was dirty and imperfect, the music was grungy independent rock, the clothes were dishevelled and messy and the parties were hard, like really hard. The Sleaze scene was centred around being disorganised, chaotic and gritty. so its no wonder nightclubs and raves became vital institutions to the movement. They were the perfect place to experience it all at once, music, fashion and wild parties.
By 2012 Indie Sleaze would just sort of fizzle out. Mainstream music fell back into favour, “Normcore” became the new fashion trend and suddenly it wasn’t cool to go out clubbing 7 days a week and get black out drunk. Now it was cool to have your life in order, go to school, get a good job, have a family, all that bullshit.
The years go on and Indie Sleaze becomes relatively forgotten. Mainstream pop stays king, fashion remains pretty tame and the cultural vibe among the younger generation stays leaning towards this idea of aspi-rationalism. But this funny thing starts to happen at the dawn of the 2020’s.
First, people begin realising that these record labels and streaming services are essentially exploiting artists, forcing them to only make commercially successful projects and limiting their creative freedom. Second, the growth of Tik Tok gives people a place to create small communities and lets artists reach their audience without bending to the will of the industry. Finally the constant pressures on young people, for example skyrocketing house prices with no rise in wages making it all but impossible to own a home Fuck you Capitalism). This leaves people feeling like they need to blow off some steam, and a lot of people do that by partying hard, like really hard. Any of this sounding familiar?
Funny how history repeats itself isn’t it? So here we are, the 2020’s Indie Sleaze revival. I’d be lying if I told you the 2 movements were identical. To compare them I’d say 2000’s Sleaze is like the original 1994 Lion King, whereas 2020’s Sleaze is like the 2019 live action remake. That’s to say the modern version is a nostalgia driven movement but I’m still very glad it exists.
Plus it’s not in the spirit of Indie Sleaze to worry about the details. Here’s what matters. The music is bassy and electronic, with more of a focus on electropop and dance punk this time round. The fashion is haphazard, a fur coat here, an oversized suit there, maybe just a fishnet crop top for good measure. There are no rules! And the modern nightclub still remains the beating heart of the movement, this time blasting beats and bangers from the likes of The Dare, Charlie XCX and Billie Eilish. Modern Sleaze is raunchy, chaotic, but most of all fun and it doesn’t give a shit if you don’t like it.
I’m sure this generation of Indie Sleaze will wither away and be forgotten just like the last. So I’ll enjoy it while it’s here and eagerly await its third coming which will probably be around 2040. When I’ll be 38, so I guess I’ll just enjoy it now.
