Culture Greyhound

Yesterday, Culture Greyhound joined millions of websites, including Wikipedia and Google, in protest of two bills making their way through Congress that could forever jeopardize a free and fair Internet. The House’s SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) and the Senate’s PIPA (Protect IP Act) are poorly worded pieces of legislation with the intentions of stopping digital piracy of intellectual property. If passed, what the bills could actually do could permanently change the Internet. The bills would censor the web and impose crippling restrictions on American businesses, seemingly with little to no judicial review.

Since the protest, many House members and Senators have dropped their support of the bills, and things are looking up. The Obama administration has expressed publicly their wariness with the bills, and a few controversial provisions in the bills have been dismissed altogether. But they are far from dead: next week the Senate will vote on PIPA, while House members will debate SOPA in February.

Wikipedia probably said it best yesterday: “SOPA and PIPA are just indicators of a much broader problem. In many jurisdictions around the world, we’re seeing the development of legislation that prioritizes overly-broad copyright enforcement laws, laws promoted by power players, over the preservation of individual civil liberties.”

To learn more about SOPA and PIPA, visit this site. To fight back, use Wikipedia to contact your local representatives and sign the petition on Google.

What can be said about chillwave in its roughly 8-month existence as a subgenre of “indie” rock that hasn’t already been said?  The subgenre has been dissected, praised, destroyed, re-praised, mocked, etc.  The always tongue-in-cheek, but really not that clever blog Hipster Runoff loves poking fun at Chillwave because it is, in fact, a relevant movement in our current state of music; they’re responsible for the JPEG above.  (I would love to delve into how much I dislike the Hipster Runoff blog/radio show/movement, but that is a post for another long day.)

I personally would like to know what’s next for chillwave, if anything.  There is a definite sound the subgenre has incorporated and brought to the table; I assume, like most subgenres of rock music, it will die soon.  In its wake, however, will come an obviously-influenced new subgenre, incorporating some elements of chillwave with other movements in music today, mainstream or otherwise.  Maybe this new subgenre will be more interesting/popular/catchy than chillwave, maybe not.  I’m not ready to declare chillwave dead, however.  I still think there’s plenty to come, and with artists like Washed Out and Neon Indian receiving an incredible amount of press/praise, I envision the genre growing before burning out.

Many people, however, still don’t know about this exciting new subgenre, which incorporates the now-standard lo-fi aesthetic many indie acts have been using.  It also adds the textures of shoegaze, 80’s pop, hip-hop, dreamwave techno, and a lot of sampling.  Simple melodies usually carry the songs along in a dreamy fashion; the subgenre has been described as great “summertime music,” however, I don’t feel that is always the case.

As with most research on the Internet, Wikipedia is a good place to start for those interested in discovering this new movement, but I also find this Musical Pairings blog post a concise description of the subgenre.  There’s also a pretty nifty mixtape I HIGHLY reccomend downloading to introduce yourself to the sounds of Chillwave, which you’ll discover are varied, yet somewhat intertwined.  I would imagine the mixtape would be great for a walk along a beach during a sunset or a drive in the country on a clear night with a full moon.

Enjoy!