Is there a more fickle bunch of people than indie music fans? The Indie genre is the equivalent of fashion, with seemingly a new “fad” coming and going every year. In the early noughties The Strokes were the hottest band on the block, only to be supplanted a year or so later by Franz Ferdinand. Now you mention Franz Ferdinand to someone au fait with the indie music scene and they’ll more than likely scoff at you and tell you to pick up a copy of Elbow’s new album.

That’s the thing with indie music: today’s hottest band are tomorrow’s has-beens. The lifespan of a typical career in pop music has long been ephemeral, but it it seems to me like the passage of time can be just as cruel (if not crueller) to indie acts as it is to Britney Spears and the like. 

The problem is that aficionados of indie music are the biggest music snobs you’re likely to come across, more so than fans of opera or the canon of Johann Sebastian Bach. They hate to see their favourite indie bands court mainstream attention, and as soon as it’s felt that the band has amassed a fan base greater than a few thousand they’re already searching high and low for the next great band no one’s heard of.

There is an element of one-upmanship inherent in the indie music scene. There is no game any indie music follower loves to play more than the ‘Have you heard of [insert name of obscure band or artist here]?’ game. If the reply is ‘no’ you’re awarded a point and a feeling of self-worth, and if the answer is ‘yes’ your opponent (presumably a fellow indie music fan, so long as you want to keep things competitive) scores a point to your chagrin.

So if you see two guys in plaid or skinny jeans asking each other about obscure bands or artists you know now to avoid them. Another way of spotting indie music snobs is if you overhear one say “I preferred their earlier stuff.” 

I’m a big fan of hip hop, so you might think “How can he slag a whole genre of music when he’s a fan of a genre notorious for promoting misogyny, violence and bling?” Well say what you like about hip hop, but at least the fans don’t turn their backs on the music. I still regularly play music by The Notorious B.I.G. and The Wu-Tang Clan; how many indie music fans still listen to The Strokes?