ABSTRACT
Over the course of the 2000s, however, indie became one of rock’s most prominent genres as groups such as Bright Eyes, the Shins, Arcade Fire and Vampire Weekend all landed releases in the Billboard Top 10 album chart, a previously unheard-of feat for such small-scale artists. The connection between indie music and whiteness takes center stage in Paul Lester’s profile of Vampire Weekend, and their second album Contra, for British newspaper The Guardian. Vampire Weekend are being mobbed in California. Meanwhile, over at a makeshift merchandise stand, band T-shirts are selling fast to fans requiring a larger canvas for their Vampire Weekend signatures. The best track on Contra, and possibly the best thing Vampire Weekend have ever done, is a sublime slice of digital dancehall with strings and sweet doo-wop harmonies, called Diplomat’s Son, the title seemingly flaunting the very thing the band are accused of being: a bunch of old-money toffs.
