Indie Music Chatter

After a full day of seriously thinking of what CDs I’m going to order this month in Amazon, I finally decided to get the last two albums from Snow Patrol. As you may notice it had been years since Final Straw and Eyes Open was released. I purposefully did not order those two albums simply because the band became too popular for my taste. I’ve been a big Gary Lightbody fan since the release of Songs for Polar Bears. I can honestly say that I got on the Snow Patrol bandwagon from their debut.  I knew that Lightbody is a music genius as evidenced by two superb albums (the aforementioned Songs… and  When It’s All Over We Still Have to Clean Up) and his  equally awesome side project Reindeer Section  (I’ll blog about them soon).

However, the breakthrough success of Final Straw left me reeling. I was hearing Snow Patrol being uttered by people who I I describe as music lemmings — blindly following music fads just because it makes them “cool.” Here was a band that I am so in love and their songs are being sung by people with questionable music tastes! It was just a bit too much for me.

Ironically enough though, what made me change my attitude towards Snow Patrol was the song they contributed to the Spider-man 3 movie. Okay, nothing defines being a corporate whore more than giving your song to a summer movie. But it made me think that popularity should not — and does not — affect how the band makes their music. They are still making awesome songs that are still consistently a cut above whatever pop crap other bands are churning out there.

It made me realize that being popular is not a good reason for hating on a band. It’s quite idiotic, really.

Snow Patrol, Final Straw, Eyes Open