Yeah, he wouldn’t be indie in the way that the kids are.* He’d just be an indie fan, which is what’s essentially being emulated. Myself, I was struck with horror one day when I realized that somewhere along the way I’d become the stereotype of the mid-twenties Indie-Hipster, save for the lack of pot smoking and the fact that I’ve never worked in a coffee shop.
Just two clarifications since this thread seems to be on the right track in general:
“Hipster” specifically refers to someone in their twenties or even thirties who pursues a bohemian (or “fauxhemian”) appearance. The term specifically has a post-collegiate connotation. It’s grown to have more of a negative connotation.
“Scene” is a perjorative - it’s sort of a pidgin of “scenester,” which generally implies someone that’s superficially into whatever scene they identify with and is more concerned with appearances and the social aspects than the actual art or music. When someone calls someone else “scene,” it’s a put-down, akin to calling them a poseur. While someone might ironically refer to themselves as “scene,” it has more of an “OMG, I’m SUCH a scenester” connotation.
The kid who said he was Scene not Emo was Scottish so that might be why it’s puzzling
This might be a meaning of scenester, but “scene” has gone beyond simply being a generic description of anyone in any scene. It used to simply reference subcultures in general, but I’d say that unless you’re specifying which “scene” you’re talking about, then it’s most often used in reference to a specific subculture called “scene”. There aren’t exactly great academic cites on this topic, but since we’re talking about slang anyway, here we have the (brief) description of various forms of “scene” from Wikipedia and then the lengthy, multiple descriptions from Urban Dictionary. Compare with scenester, which is fairly generic while scene is not.
For the most part, at least in America, scene seems to be tied closely to emo.
I’m having trouble with this “tight girl pants” portion of the Emo/Scene/Indie/Hipster chimera. Take a look at the picture on that Urban Dictionary page. Maybe it’s just where I live but EVERYONE wears their jeans like that, even the obese old people like me. It’s just all you can buy (though it’s forced me to buy jeans several sizes too large and invest in a belt, 'cause believe you me, ain’t no one wants to see the muffin top these hips could produce!) Are we all Emo in Chicago?
Well, emo/scene tends towards darker colors than indie, which tends towards earth-tones and a vintage look, and there are still the kids who wear baggy pants (skaters, those into hip-hop, etc). As I said, this is right up there with when “alternative” was trendy during the '90s. It’s just what’s currently fashionable. People will make fun of it, deny labels, etc, but it’s far more mainstream than anyone involved in those particular subcultures wants to admit. Which is what makes telling the difference between these subcultures so difficult to anyone outside of them, since they’re so similar and so omnipresent in current fashion.
Good lord, what a ridiculous attitude.
Death Cab always sucked.
But that’s a pretty fine distinction between two groups that are otherwise exactly the same.
Aww, come on, they do have a couple of good songs 
“Someday You Will Be Loved” is really good at least.
While I don’t really idenitify as a hipster, I wouldn’t be surprised if I and a few other twenty-to-thirty something Dopers (VCO3 for one) would be labeled that way by the ubiquitous they at large. I was a pretentious little thing in college, but by this point a love of indie music is just habit. There’s some good mainstream music, but a lot of the best bands are ones the average Joe has never heard of. But I no longer abandon bands that become popular.
I’ve never worn a uniform to reflect my taste in anything, though. That’s just silly.
Anyone else listening to Bat For Lashes and God Love You For a Liar yet?
Darkwave, which is what a lot of younger people seem to mean when they talk about goth music.
FWIW, I think the genre-oriented fans tend to be a lot less open-minded than the musicians they listen to. After the Dresden Dolls’ first Seattle performance, I was chatting with the drummer and asked him what he was listening to at the time; in one breath he recommended a hardcore punk band and Hoagy Carmichael. The teenage goth wannabees standing around with us were kind of nonplussed.
I’ve also seen moody acoustic artists headbanging to AC/DC, and have run into another guy–best known for performing while so drunk he could barely remember the lyrics–at the ballet.
I find myself asking, “Which scene? You mean there’s only one ‘scene’?”
I realized that “alternative” had officially become useless as a music descriptor when I happened to tune in to the local Top 40 station’s after-10:00 PM “alternative hour” (where they play the “dangerous” stuff that they can’t play during the day when the 11-year-olds might be listening), and they played some vintage Van Halen sandwiched in between Nickelback and Puddle of Mudd.
Alternative stopped meaning “dangerous” a long time ago.
Nowadays I hear it used to describe anything most people consider “quirky.” People/bands like Beck, Bjork, Rilo Kiley, The New Pornographers, Postal Service, Modest Mouse, Flaming Lips, They Might Be Giants and Arcade Fire.
That’s why I put it in quotes 
Welcome to the world of adolescence. 