A genre that I recently started getting more interested is "twee." It started when I ran across the word somewhere on teh interwebz and remarked to myself what a cute word it is. And it's just that—really cute. It's music that falls under that enormous umbrella of "indie"—and who actually knows what that means, really—but has its own qualifier of being unbelievably cute.
The "gimmick" of twee is that it's indie pop, but sweet to the point of saccharine. It's almost too childishly simple and innocent. Lots of pretty melodies played by polite-looking boys in collared shirts and doe-eyed girls who dress like librarians.
And yet, there's something really appealing about it to me. It strikes me as a sort of reaction against the hyperinflated and ever-inflating world of general "indie music;" as new sub-genres pop up willy nilly and you start getting all kinds of new labels to describe them, as indie starts getting more professional, as the media seizes on rising bands and pushes them to become more and more glamorous… you have twee. You have something sweet, earnest, unadorned, bordering on lackadaisical.
Think of it this way—they're the kids who are so not worried about uncoolness that they're cool.
"Hearts and Crosses" by Heavenly from Atta Girl (5-track Maxi-single) (1993)
"I'm Lost Without You Here" by Rocketship from A Certain Smile, A Certain Sadness (1996)
"Emma's House" by The Field Mice, first released as a single in 1988, re-released on 2005 re-issue of Snowball
-A
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