Sparse-sounding alt rock on college radio: is there a name for this style?

Cafe Society
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My east suburban Cleveland neighborhood is surrounded by various colleges an universities; Notre Dame, John Carroll, Case Western Reserve, and Ursuline, most with radio stations. One of them plays only a certain style of music that I’ve been hearing on many college radio stations since … well, since I got my B.S. in 1989. If I heard the present-day version of that station while I was in the dorms at Buff State in the mid-1980s, it would sound as familiar as a classic rock or oldies station from the era; it woudn’t sound like a radio station from the future.

The type of music is hard to describe, except to say that it sounds sparse: maybe two instrument backups at the most, lilting female vocals more often than not the norm, and not much variation in the beat or rhythm. Fuck and Run by Liz Phair would be a popular song that most closely approximates the style; her later works don’t seem to reflect that sparse 1980s/1990s/2000s college radio sound.

What’s the name of this style of rock? I know it might be easty to say “college” or “garage”, but when I hear the terms, I think of REM, Dave Matthews and the like.

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Low fi?

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No, not lo-fi. There’s no real name for it, despite maybe twee. The sample you gave sounds like a descendant of Beat Happening. Try “What’s Important”, I guess, but none on that Myspace really have the style you’re looking for. You’ll find a ton of it on Jamboree, though.

4

It sounds like a descendant of garage rock to me, which is not a label I’d give to DMV or REM. Here’s an example of a classic garage rock song.

No, it’s not a rickroll, although it would be a good place to put one.

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Yeah, a lot of the music sounds like Beat Happening, at least those with male vocals. The music played by women sounds equally sparse and amateurish but “cute”, which I guess is twee.

Why so many college radio stations have a playlist that consists almost exclusively of these styles, though, seems to be a mystery. I mean, if the styles barely have names, do they really have a large following among college students?

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College radio is vast and diverse. There are college stations that think all music that is not jazz or blues is simply not good music, so all you’ll hear is jazz and blues. There are some college stations that only play Adult Rock, some that only play indie rock, freak folk, etc.

I’ve never encountered one that only played that style, but I wouldn’t be surprised. With Beat Happening, it’s a very youth oriented music that you can only truly appreciate when you’re young. When it was first being made, back in the 80’s, it was simply indie pop. Times have changed, though, and indie pop means several million things now. Twee once was a good indicator, too, but twee is now seen as more acoustic stuff, like Belle and Sebastien, rather than jangling bands you’d find in C86.

Yea, people listen to it. There has always been an attraction to music that you know that you could make if you ever felt like it. In some ways, it’s the same allure some people find in punk.

But, I’d say if there were any trends in modern music, which there aren’t really, I’d say it has sort of fallen out of favor in recent years. At first this was due to freak folk, but now really clean indie rock bands like Vampire Weekend, Born Ruffians, the new Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin, etc are coming onto the scene in record numbers.

Would you like recommendations or were you simply curious?

ETA: There are a lot of “styles” of indie that simply have no names. This is the best time in the history of everything for musical diversity and influences fly in and fly out and you only ever have a vague idea of the direction things are headed towards. Lot’s of people love a certain, particular style, but have no label for it, kind of like above when I was talking about Vampire Weekend style bands.

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Progressive?

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Nope. Progressive is the likes of Yes, old Genesis, Emerson Lake and Palmer, Rick Wakeman, and so on. It’s rock that can be almost too orchestrated, melodic, and pretentious; pretty much the exact opposite of jangling twee and Beat Happening-style indie pop.

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DIY?

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I’ve always referred to it as either “college” or “college alternative”. It’s also known as “grunge lite”.

e.g. Liz Phair, old R.E.M., Blake Babies, Postal Service, Ben Lee…

It’s strange that, since the late 80’s when this sound arose, it hasn’t really changed over the last 15-20 years. I like the genre, so I can’t complain that it’s still being written :slight_smile:

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A great Dutch band almost, but not quite, spreads this divide. Kirsten Ketsjer (Try The Bridge Pt 1). It’s more melodic than the indie pop we’re talking about and a lot less complex than most prog rock, but it’s an interesting attempt at both. Er, in this case, I mean prog in the sense of really long songs that are slow to develop, in this case eventually collapsing into noise.

And how exactly does Postal Service fit into this discussion? Here’s the best example I can think of the genre, Beat Happening’s Indian Summer (Didn’t think to use YouTube before.)

Hell, here’s some more of the legendary Calvin Johnson, for kicks: Black Candy, Cry For a Shadow, Hot Chocolate Boy, etc etc. The fun fact everyone fights to mention first is that Kurt Cobain had Calvin’s record label logo (mouthful) tatooed on his arm.

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Agree. (And yeah, elmwood, early R.E.M. was often similarly spare.)

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The longevity is what I find amazing about it. If I played some mid-to-late 1980s-era airchecks of the radio station at the college I went to, and compared them to what’s being broadcast today, there wouldn’t be much of a difference; still a lot of twee, cuddlecore, and deliberately amateurish C86-style indie pop.

Keep posting band names. This is how we find out about new music, and bands we might have overlooked in earlier years. :slight_smile:

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What’s the frequency, elmwood? Drive-time investigation will ensue. WMJI commercials are driving me crazy.