Great article, and excellent example in the Clarkson song & Maps. I used to hear the former on the radio and think "Pop sounds less shitty these days" then put in my Yeah Yeah Yeah's album without realizing the theft going on.

Still, Karen O and crew does it better because they have the skills. Any pop producer with half a brain would steal from them, and as to why they have to steal, they are pop producers who lack the ability to create from whole cloth.

"There's nothing new under the sun," and the world is a never-ending circle of borrowings and references. Still, it is good to point them out and be informed about the music choices you make.

Kudos

Since when have indie artists ever created "from whole cloth"? The genre is chock full of beloved artists who are nothing more or less than a pastiche of irony, pretension and styles already well-known to the mainstream pop world. The fact that it is marketed to PBR swilling ex-band campers currently employed in the service industry (or simply living off daddy's charity) doesn't make it special or particularly creative.

can't we please just leave Pabst out of it? i am starting to think that it's impossible to complain about hipsters without using the word "irony" and "pbr."

Jonah doesn't deserve too much credit for noticing the Maps / Since U Been Gone comparison, it has been pretty obvious since Ted Leo came out with this over 4 years ago.

And thanks, darewreck, hipsterbacklash is just as annoying and homogeneous as the supposed hipstercliches (besides, everyone is drinking High Life these days anyway).