You've probably noticed it by now: the smeared makeup in fashion editorials, the "messy girl" style of gen Z celebrities like Olivia Rodrigo, and the dance-y, LCD Soundsystem-esque sound of artists like the Dare and ...
well, LCD Soundsystem, whose reunited lineup seems to be playing shows every night now. The no-longer-so-niche pop star Charli xcx further foregrounded it with her breakout hit Brat this past summer, an album whose inescapable promotional cycle improbably combined an embrace by the Harris/Walz presidential campaign – cue Jake Tapper trying to explain "brat summer" to your parents – and a birthday party photographed by none other than aughts-era shutter bug the Cobrasnake in his trademark high-flash, low-res style. I'm talking, of course, of the aesthetic retroactively known as "indie sleaze".
Coined in 2021 by a Toronto Instagrammer, the term refers to the decadent, messy, dancefloor-centric music and culture of early 2000s – and stretching an undefined number of years into the 2010s – hipsterdom. (Really, we're nostalgic for things that happened years ago? What's next, 10 minutes?) Think the Strokes, Crystal Castles and Kate Moss at Glastonbury. Gen Zers may idealize it as a time before smartphones, cancel culture and fentanyl contamination took the fun and spontaneity out of being young, dumb and full of original formula Sparks.
But as someone who was there, I'd urge the children to look a little closer before deciding this way of life is something t.
