In the 80’s a unique
and mellow music genre Indie rock that originated from the United Kingdom and
the United States started getting recognition. The genre is diverse with
sub-genres that include indie pop and jangle pop. Like hip hop indie rock has a
highly competitive underground scene with most bands scattered across England
and Scotland. The turn of the new millennium saw a lot of indie groups emerge
and enjoy commercial success, and having influence on a global scale.
Over the past two months my playlist has been ruled by indie
rock music with bands such as R.E.M from the US, The Smiths and The XX both
from Queen Elizabeth’s kingdom. Today we take a brief look at a band that’s
taken over some portion of my music loving heart, The XX.
Since the bands inception in 2005 The XX has gone on to
release superb and well-produced music by band member Jamie Smith under record
label Young Turks. The band from Wandsworth, London, hugely gained recognition
and success soon followed the band in a relatively competitive genre. The
band’s debut album ‘XX’ was released
in August of 2009 with hotte singles such as “Crystalised”, “islands”
and “Basic Space” contesting on
international charts and spending over 100 weeks on the UK Albums Chart and
later reaching platinum status. The album was also acclaimed by critics and
notable publications such as The Times, Rolling Stone and The Telegraph, and
featured on television productions such as Suits, Mercy, Bedlam and the Greek
version of Next Top Model to highlight a few.
After getting three nominations for Best British Album, Best
British Breakthrough and Best British Band at the 2011 Brit Awards held at the
O2
Arena in London which they did not win any category, the group went on to
record and release their second album titled ‘Coexist’. The new album would build on the success of the first
album and sold 58 000 copies on the opening week and also debuted number
one on the UK Albums Chart.
With such success in a short space of time, the band has at
least engraved their name on hearts of listeners and it should be expected that
the group will emulate what the likes of Kaiser Chiefs, R.E.M and Florence and
The Machine have proved possible.
Ashley Mokwena
Twitter: @ashfonik
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