There is no industry filled with more self-loathing than the music industry, and no limb of the tree highlights this more than the music video limb. Let’s start from the top and work our way down: Saddle Creek (probably Universal, actually) premieres the new video from Bright Eyes, arguably their biggest cash-cow and one of the “indie” crossover hits a la the Shins and full-scale “sell-outs” like Modest Mouse, Death Cab for Cutie, and the Decemberists. They do this on AOL Music via some sub-label called Spinner with translates as “pathetic grab for edginess and credibility”. AOL music hates AOL because AOL doesn’t stand for music. So, instead, Spinner stands for music via AOL. Self-loathing facet 1: self-loathing is always accompanied by an identity crisis.

Identity crises brings us to the next piece of the self-loathing puzzle: promotions. Somewhere in LA are four or five people spread across the four or five labels who feel that “premiering” their latest music video on AOL music or Yahoo music is some sort of coup. Sadly, they don’t realize that nobody checks AOL music for hot new releases. They would love to create some sort of “viral” campaign to promote the artist and the video, but they have found that artificially manufacturing an organic phenomenon is incredibly hard. The fans often see through it and hate them for it. They do a job where to be effective you must seem like you aren’t doing your job. Promotion is full of self-loathing. I can only assume that these promotions people figure they’ll just give up on the impenetrable “youth” crowd (relying on the artist’s “indie” roots to carry them through) and try to catch a more mainstream crowd who wouldn’t normally know about a band like Bright Eyes. So a department that hates itself gives the video to a company that hates itself. Self-loathing facet 2: misery loves company.

The reason all this is necessary is due to a channel that hates itself. AOL music and Yahoo music became the “indie” industry’s standard answer to music video premieres due to a mad scramble for “mainstream” exposure once blindly sending your tape to MTV only guaranteed that your band’s music would get played during the credits of “Dancelife” and not that the video would actually get played. MTV has hated itself pretty much since its inception and has successfully managed to kill its former persona while still maintaining a facade that this persona (the persona that cares about music) actually exists. Self-loathing facet 3: he who loathes the most, wins.

The self-loathing that permeates the above behavior also defines Patrick Daughters’ video for Four Winds. The foundation of the piece seems an almost so-perfect-it’s-boring fit for Bright Eyes aka Mr. Oberst: a straight performance piece through a Dylan-esque, middle America, country-tinged prism. The trajectory of this approach would feel like an all to obvious grab for “indie” credibility but thankfully Daughters throws the curve ball about one-third of the way in: this down-home, state fair crowd hates the performance. What starts with a yell of “You suck… go home!” builds into full fledged civil unrest, boo-ing and an assault of bottles and trash that defies logical possibility. Oberst and the band play on in the face of diversity, displaying a resolve for either the music they believe in or a desire to collect their paycheck. The whole thing feels like an odd mix of the Blues Brothers and the final scene in Oh Brother, Where Art Though?. While Mr. Oberst at times seems reticent to discuss how his success figures into his persona, I think his feelings on the topic can’t help but permeate all that he touches. It’s a self-loathing that would make Kurt Cobain proud.

With this, and his Yeah Yeah Yeah’s gems for “Maps” and “Gold Lion”, I think Patrick Daughters has proved himself the master of the conceptual performance piece. Quite frankly, the man makes the most “music video” videos of anybody out there. Well shot, visually captivating videos that create an unmistakable image for the artist without getting so clever that he starts going over people’s heads. It’s no surprise he is slowly becoming the Hype Williams of white people: he delivers something that everybody in the musical chain, from artist to record label, can be happy with. And while he definitely gets a little more conceptual and risky at times (i.e. Beck’s Nausea and the Shins’ Phantom Limb) there is no denying that those efforts, while more engaging to film students, fall short in terms of music video success. Does Patrick Daughters loathe himself? Given his obvious talent and his obvious success, I’d say the odds are pretty high ((I bet the self-loathing is further fueled by the fact that the AOL premier fucks up the aspect ratio of the video. That must hurt, Patrick.)).

Speaking of success brings us back to Bright Eyes, one of the poster boys of indie success and thus the pinnacle of self-loathing. The term “Indie” coupled with success inevitably leads to the phrase “sell-out”. This is bullshit. This isn’t because its okay to sell out (it isn’t) and it isn’t because a true musician can never sell out (they can). It’s because those two terms above, “indie” and “sell-out”, are all but meaningless in an industry defined by the transition from the former to the latter. Many of you already knew this, but it bears repeating. Tell me what an “indie” band is? A band on an “independent” label? What is that? “Sell out”? The entire music industry, from inception, is one big “sell-out”. None of it makes any sense. For all of you so concerned with what’s behind the curtain of your favorite musicians, I’m amazed that it’s not painfully obvious that these are the wrong things to be concerned with. I think staying true to one’s artistic vision, honesty, is the property many are championing, but it must be realized that honesty and selling out can go hand in hand just as being independent does not guarantee that one is honest. This version of “indie” music that has developed through nomenclature alone is a cancer. If indie music means you deal with just as much politicking and bullshit as major label music but you get way less money for it, then “indie music” is just the music industry’s sweatshop. Essentially, if you are worried about whether Bright Eyes is cool or not, or whether he has sold out, you just don’t get it. You do, however, fit right in because your display of self-loathing is par for the course.

This video is copyright 2007 Polydor Records. Polydor records is a wholly owned subsidiary of Universal Music Group. Viva la indie.