The mainstream is dead. Long live the individual! While this is a tired and clichéd line, it holds true. In a decade of musical ups and downs that started with the birth of a technological revolution and ended with the death of a King, there has been one constant trend: a general shift away from all-encompassing music that aims to attract a broad audience towards music that treats consumers as individuals. The cause of this phenomenon is technology. With the rise of mp3s and portable media players that can now hold up to 160GBs of music, coupled with the rise of the Internet and immediate information, technology has made music a personalized experience where you can isolate your tastes and easily find music that fits what you want.

This has had some consequences on how we listen to music. If the pre-Y2K scale of musical importance went from mainstream rock and pop as the most influential, to underground independent music as the music with the smallest sphere of influence, the new millennium has ushered in a total breakdown of the old system. Now, the mainstream has become insignificant, polarizing audiences towards one genre or another. Alternative music as a label is now the alternative to nothing; rather it has become the dominant pop music form. In its place, independent music has stepped into the fray as the genre for niche markets, capitalizing on the Internet and new forms of marketing to reach small and specialized markets.

Mainstream music, which by definition should represent the preferences of the majority, has this decade become radicalized in terms of values. In one corner, there is a growing group of musicians who rely on their innocence and the “purity” of their music to make them popular. Conversely, there is a dominant group of rappers, rockers and R&Bers who have come to adopt highly sexualized and often taboo images to attract listeners (à la the shirtless Mario and Trey Songz at last Sunday’s concert). Just look at popular music radio, which contrasts the chaste and puritanical images of the Jonas Brothers and Hannah Montana with Katy Perry’s proclamation of lesbian experimentation and the chorus of Lil’ Wayne and Drake’s “Every Girl” (“I just want to fuck every girl in the world …”). These two groups are permanently at odds with each other and have contributed to the lack of fluidity in popular music, and hence, there will very rarely again be a musical act that represents the needs of both of these groups. Instead, mainstream music is marked by a need to play up either a stereotypically “good” or “bad” image, lest the opposing side attack you.

This decade has shown the increasing influence of music that was previously deemed alternative. These bands, which had provided another option in the mainstream dominated system, have now filled the pop-rock mantle. The “The” bands (The Strokes, The White Stripes, The Hives) have dominated the decade with their downtown hip style and garage rock revival sounds. For these groups to be playing at large-scale venues (for example: Kings of Leon selling out Madison Square Garden) is a huge shift and accomplishment that demonstrates where the true popularity in new music is. Additionally, big publicity reunions of alternative behemoths such as The Pixies and Dinosaur Jr, as well as lesser known ’80s bands like The Feelies or Mission of Burma, have only served to further show the influence and impact these groups had. While in their heyday they struggled to stay afloat, in the new millennium these alternative rock gods have reformed to face screaming fans and sold out shows.

Therefore, the genre that benefited most from new technology is independent music. The only musical genre named after a business model rather then its actual sound, independent music has long been plagued by small, niche audiences that only hear of bands through regional connections or word of mouth. The Internet revolutionized this by allowing bands to rely more on their music then their image, or their dashing good looks, by posting songs on websites such as Myspace and YouTube and allowing their audiences to find them from all over the world. Whole international and multicultural communities sprung up on the Internet —whose sole purpose was to find likeminded people and share music that they enjoyed. This brought new and larger audiences to the types of music, like heavily discordant punk or abstract mood music, that previously had been viewed as too left-of-center for many people to enjoy. Now though, artists who experiment and produce “weird” music, such as Animal Collective or Deerhunter, are seen as heroes to the independent scene.

It is fitting that the two biggest musical events of this year have been the release of Beatles Rock Band and the death of Michael Jackson. These two acts have been among the, if not the, largest figures in popular music, combining the catchiness and harmonics of pop, with an edge and experimentation that marks truly great music. Unfortunately (or fortunately), there will never again be musicians who can match up to these giants of music. If this new decade has given us anything, the new technology has forever revolutionized the way we listen to and consume music. We are the “I” generation, and our music tastes reflect this newfound individualism.