A dizzy turn of events for Florence at the Brit Awards

Once upon a time, the artists who dominated the charts hunted predominantly in packs of four or five, complete with dance routines and matching outfits. The bands of the last twenty years have evolved and disbanded; the Spice Girls are reality TV stars or judging ice skating competitions and Take That may still be the best boy band around, but with so few competitors, it’s hardly a tough call. What happened to pop music? Did we just hit the noughties and suddenly decide we were too cool for ‘mainstream’ music, or are manufactured bands still out there?

Surely music contests, such as  The X Factor, with its 13 European branches, are clear evidence that ‘pop’ music – in all its cheesy, manufactured glory – is still at large? On an internation level, the charts are still very much driven by bands that have their songs written for them, but yet undeniably in recent times, there has been a rise in ‘independent music’. Boy bands have abandoned their dance moves for skinny jeans and drum kits and with only a few exceptions, ladies have abdicated their groups and taken to the stage alone, with bite back lyrics and feminism.

How has this happened? Ten years ago we knew nothing about power femmes and ‘indie bands’, unless you were a regular subscriber to the NME and listened to John Peel. Nowadays, everyone and their dog can name a music group beginning in “The” and featuring a member who wears granddad clothes in a non ironic way.

One reason could be the mass featuring of ‘underground bands’ on the soundtracks of TV shows produced for the young cultural consumer amongst us. Programmes for the MTV generation such as One Tree Hill, The O.C., 902010 and Gossip Girl play out against a background of La Roux, The XX and The Shins. And prime time radio shows have begun to air unsigned music more regularly. This exposure slowly filters onto our airwaves, and before we know it, everyone’s humming the next big thing.

Bands who were ‘under the radar’ for so long have had chances to be the acts that everyone is talking about: Florence and the Machine, La Roux and Little Boots were all little known ladies with big voices, who, riding on a crest of opportunity and individuality, made their way onto our iPods and into our heads, all in the same year.

Despite their quiffs and quirk, the ‘anti mainstream’ of today’s music is just as much, if not arguably more popular than those bands produced by figures like Simon Cowell. In fact, it is not uncommon to see a merger of the two; Dizzee Rascal and Florence Welch singing a Glee- esque mash up to many not a surprise at the 2010 Brit Awards. Florence, looking slightly awkward next to Mr Rascal, probably never dreamed that one day her ‘Lungs’ would get her up next to one of Britain’s biggest acts, at an event she attended the previous year as a newcomer. Unsurprisingly, the song was released and entered the UK charts at number two, a move orchestrated from the beginning?

Alexa and Alex: hip to the indie groove...

Either way, the underground is coming up to the high street in all senses. On the playlists of flagship fashion stores are not chart toppers, but more unheard of bands, to match many of the clothes on the rails. The style icons we have today are no longer socialites but more avant garde figures; Alexa Chung, notably dating the lead singer of an indie band, has just been voted Vogue’s most stylish lady.  Her fashion inspires clothes lines, not the other way around, and arguably whether or not you care about new music, Alexa Chung is an inspiration to many in her garments.

And many boys might have scorned the idea of wearing a cardigan, but thanks to some of the figureheads of today’s guitar bands, buttons have been done up, and trouser widths have shrunk.  As ever, music and fashion are inextricably linked, but whether or not the individuality of artists is being sucked away with the more credibility they receive is a debate with no easy answer.  We have only to become accustomed to the new ‘cool’- not shiny, skinny girl groups, but women with original lyrics, and boy bands who play their own instruments and write their own songs.