LOS ANGELES (AP) 鈥� Singer-songwriter Mitski鈥檚 plays out like a whispered dirge.
The song is gothic lounge music for a listener who only has about two minutes to have their heart broken 鈥� a silky soft slow burn stacked with a choir, organ, bass and most critically, pedal steel guitar, the kind favored by country and western purists.
In no way does that description scream 鈥渕ainstream hit,鈥� and yet, for 12 weeks, it has been on the Billboard Hot 100, an unusual metric of success for a wholly independent artist. And for 10 weeks, her indie rock-meets-chamber pop-meets-country held the No. 1 position on Billboard鈥檚 TikTok trending chart.
Mitski is not from the American South, though her discography has long considered small town U.S.A. and she relocated to Nashville a few years ago to mine the geography鈥檚 humanity. (鈥淰alentine, Texas鈥� from last year鈥檚 is an example, but there are many.)
She is, of course, not the first indie artist to explore weeping Americana sounds. Many of the leading acts in contemporary indie rock pull from the South 鈥� like Mitski 鈥� or hail from there, like soloists Angel Olsen and Waxahatchee, or groups like Plains, Wednesday and two-thirds of boygenius. 鈥� 鈥渢oo country for rock 鈥榥鈥� roll, too rock 鈥榥鈥� roll for country鈥� style is a clear predecessor; and every few generations, it seems like a great new band pulls from alt-country's narrative specificity.
A WORLD INTERESTED IN COUNTRY
Interestingly, indie rock's current adoption of country comes at a time of increased global interest in country music. According to the for data and analytics platform Luminate, country music experienced its biggest streaming week ever this year, a whopping 2.26 billion.
The genre has historically been enjoyed by English-speaking Americans, but their reporting shows growth in non-Anglophonic territories such as Philippines, Indonesia, India, Brazil, Mexico, Germany, and Vietnam.
In March 2023, Spotify launched a new playlist dedicated to the phenomenon of country-influence in indie rock titled 鈥淚ndie Twang.鈥� It's curated by Carla Turi, Spotify鈥檚 folk and acoustic music editor, who says the playlist was the result of conversations dating back to summer 2022, when they noticed growing 鈥渃ountry influence in indie rock,鈥� as she calls it. It's a legacy that extends to the late 2010s when country iconography started cropping up in spaces not-traditionally considered country: everything from to Mitski鈥檚 2018 album 鈥淏e the Cowboy.鈥�
鈥淚 also think, through the lockdown we experienced in 2020, listeners sort of emerged craving more organic-sounding music as a way to connect with others,鈥� she continued. The indie twang playlist was born out of all of that, amplified by successful indie artists like Ethel Cain and Plains.
鈥淚鈥檓 seeing this space as a kind of movement, rather than a trend,鈥� she adds. 鈥淭he sound will always have its peaks and valleys. I do think that the fanbase, overall, continues to grow. I think that this sort of surge of Americana and singer-songwriter music here in the States has shifted listening habits across the entire country.鈥�
AN ALTERNATIVE STATE OF MIND
In 2023, these indie artists offer an alternative to the charts like Morgan Wallen, Luke Combs, and Jason Aldean. The movement is led by female performers, for one, and artists who don't immediately fit into a traditional genre format.
They also offer an alternative to traditional images of indie rock: instead of shying away from their geographic identities 鈥� like moving to New York and smoothing out to 鈥測鈥檃lls鈥� and 鈥渕a鈥檃ms鈥� from their speech and music 鈥� they鈥檙e embracing them. Banjos and . Songs about God, rural roads, trucks, guns, humidity, and crickets do, too.
Like Turi, sees the connection to country music from a more traditional indie rock audience as a post-COVID-19 lockdown revelation. 鈥淲e saw people leaving cities, moving to smaller towns and out to the country. We saw people in cities baking bread, starting herb gardens, craving something simple, nostalgic, and that feels good,鈥� she said.
鈥淥n tour, we covered , everyone is singing along, and that鈥檚 the least cool s--- I can imagine. People are through being cool and are embracing who we are and what we really like. And for a lot of people, that鈥檚 country music.鈥�
She says she had to leave the South in order to return to it and fully appreciate her love for both it and country music, the way 鈥淭exans leave and then immediately get a tattoo of the state of Texas,鈥� she says, laughing.
KEEPING IT CLOSE TO HOME
Karly Hartzman, frontperson of the Ashville band Wednesday, has never left North Carolina. 鈥淚 think where we live is inseparable from our music at this point. Of course, we are influenced by country music, but country music sounds and feels the way it does because of the environment it鈥檚 made in. A great country song feels like where it鈥檚 from,鈥� she says.
Wednesday's 2023 full-length 鈥淩at Saw God鈥� made AP's list for its alt-country rock sensibility, where pulling the listener into the quiet parts of a Carolinas hometown is as much a part of the sonic fabric as lap steel or guitar fuzz or a poetic line sung out of key.
Hartzmann adds that the complications of living in the South are 鈥渢he stereotypes 鈥� which are founded of course. The politics, the racism, and the inequity,鈥� she says. 鈥淚鈥檓 strongly against leaving this place 鈥檆ause I disagree with the politics of those in power, though. It鈥檚 invigorating cause I feel empowered to fight against that (expletive), especially for those who are unable to do that themselves here.鈥�
She says the South is her 鈥渇avorite place on Earth" 鈥� beyond its influential music 鈥� but the appeal to stick around and create there is economic, too, which may have an impact on indie artists pulling from country sounds.
鈥淚 think affordability is a big factor for people trying to make it from their hometowns now instead of moving to big cities,鈥� she says. 鈥淭he internet makes that possible, obviously.鈥�
It also means, for listeners on an Indie Twang playlist, or those at a rock club in a major city or a honky tonk in a small town, new approaches to familiar Southern sounds are more accessible than ever before.
Maria Sherman, The Associated Press
