It was a pseudo-revival of mid-century folk music. It didn’t last because much of it didn’t have genuine proletarian roots like real folk music. It mimicked the aesthetic and sounds of folk music but none of the content. It never will when it’s just wealthy urbanites cosplaying as poor country bumpkins.

Folk music and related genres (like soul and country and blues) have all suffered for the same reason. Their class character is fake and purely aesthetic today. At least, for the super mainstream bands that make it on the Starbucks Spotify playlist.

There was a megathread a while back about Woody Guthrie. His music lasted because it captured a genuine aspect of working class America in a way that stomp clap hey never can. This Land Is Your Land was a political song. We don’t do that enough anymore, in the name of mass appeal and profit and merchandising. Even Bill Withers, who was merely center-left as far as I know, made music that mattered with lyrics opposing racism and war.

All these guys work at gourmet $20 burger joints now

styles are always overrated in their prime, despised immediately after their prime, and then longed for wistfully 2+ decades later. pattern-noticer gang is weary and opening their bibles to ecclesiastes.

imagine dragons survived and it's doing worse shit than that

Itt: people realizing that they are entering the "this generation of music sucks" phase of their lives

I think this genre bugged me more than any other bad genre because I really liked the previous era of indie rock - early Arcade Fire, Broken Social Scene, Wolf Parade, Neutral Milk Hotel, Animal Collective, The Unicorns, Stars, Final Fantasy/Owen Pallett, The Microphones, ahhh, I'm getting powerful nostalgia just listing them out. Not that all these bands sounded similar to each other, but there was this weirdo/folko/p4k-zone that they all occupied that I found really moving and relatable, I think cause most of the people making it were depressed and anxious or otherwise mentally ill like me.

When all this stomp/clap "indie" bullshit started it felt like they took music I love, stripped everything interesting from it, and gave it to the rich kids with no problems that were often CAUSING me mental illness. It felt like some cruel ironic punishment from Greek mythos.

This stuff was fine in small doses but it was everywhere and I got so tired of it so quickly. Ever since artists stopped being able to make money off album sales there's been a race to the bottom to make bland, palatable music so you can license it out to be in commercials, which means it just gets oversaturated in like a month.

Everyone's corny wedding pictures for over a decade now.

I hated it when it came out but I've been going back to it recently.

The older you get the more you have nostalgia for different times. You don't only have nostalgia for your childhood. You'll have it for your teenage years, college, your 20s, etc. This music was big when I was in college so that's what it reminds me of.

I concede that it has nothing to do with the quality of the music.

I definitely went through a period where I liked some of that music, but I can't stand to listen to any of it now. Probably the fastest 180 I've ever had towards an entire genre of music.

lol i was thinking about doing a halloween costume based around exposed suspenders, flop undercut, beard, and full sleeve tattoos. because that is 1000% NOT my look, but i could affect it quickly for maybe $20 in materials. it's sort of my thing to wear a costume that is obviously a costume, but also has like a dozen answers to "what are you dressed as?" and let people guess.

last year i wore a track suit, a flat cap. dyed my facial hair, and had a bunch of fake tattoos on my face, fingers, hands and neck. funniest guess was "post malone".

i got the idea one year because i dressed up as "anti fascist santa" and the libs always guessed i was "some kind of terrorist", which still makes me laugh.

BLAME IT ON MY A.D.D.!

That obnoxious hair-beard combo survived for longer.

All music is bad and haram

One of my friends still really likes this music

Mumford and sons, lumineers, x ambassadors, that type of garbage

So I guess there’s a market for it somewhere

On one hand that shit sucks on the other hand without it high school me wouldn't have been sent down the rabbit hole into actual 60s folk revival and Pete Seeger and shit so who can say if it's good or bad.

The actual name of the genre is Stomp and Holler, and I'll never forgive Spotify for lumping Bombadil in with these cretins.

As seen on "Renegades," the song that X Ambassadors (only known for "Renegades") were paid by Jeep to make to promote the Jeep Renegade. It still pops in my head now and then because it's just the perfect example of corporate co-opting of the idea of nonconformity.

Also just a really shitty song.