The soundtrack for the new Twilight movie reads like a veritable pitchfork dream team, featuring Lykke Li, Bon Iver and St. Vincent, Grizzly Bear, and hipster messiah Thom Yorke. This may seem like a shocking twist for a series that exudes as much Transylvania-is-for-lovers-style teen angst as does Twilight (Cut my wrists and suck my blood?), but the Twilight 2 soundtrack is only highlighting a trend that has been going on for some time now, a trend I would like to refer to as the "emo-fication of Indie Rock".
It seems the moment things went wrong for Indie Rock is when "hot" bands discovered the Beach Boys, overshadowing the trend of Bruce Springsteen-posturing that had resulted in a Steinbeck-ian/Salinger-ian brand of Americana (see Boys and Girls in America, "(Antichrist Television Blues)") that felt rootsy enough to combat the spoiled, pretentious hipster reputation. That is until vocal harmonies somehow became cool, suddenly becoming featured in absurd genres like "bedroom-pop" (also known as filling-the-social-void-in-my-life-by-twisting-synthesizer-knobs-pop). Say what you will about the Beach Boys, but there is no denying that their lyrics are entirely recluse-emo (see Pet Sounds), which has undoubtedly seeped into the music of their indie branchildren. This has resulted in an entirely uninteresting crop of indie bands (bedroom-pop doesn't exactly produce the same compelling sex-drug-rock 'n'roll myths characteristic of arena rock bands) making music achingly perfect for primetime CW.
At the same time, Emo bands seem to be pushing away from the moody behavior that made them such a maligned subculture in the first place. Successful emo songs on pop radio seem to exhibit qualities antithetical to the emo persona. Cobra Starship is making "Good Girls Go Bad" rather than having bad girls make them feel not very good. 3OH3! are posturing as chauvinistic assholes (and even fitting in Helen Keller jokes).
And if you need more proof that Indie Rock is the perfect soundtrack to lofe affairs of the undead, there is always Vampire Weekend.
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