Are You An Indie Yuppie? I Know I Am

I recently started reading the New York-based indie rock blog Stereogum and it seems like I'm ripping half of my blog posts right off of it these days. The reason is that I read it every day, I'm slowly browsing through the archives, and it really is a great site.

One of the site's most popular posts was inspired by comments made by Vice Records label manager Adam Shore. Shore was complaining about the way that today's indie-music has gone completely soft (Postal Service, Arcade Fire, The Shins, etc.) compared to indie-music of yesteryear (Nirvana, Soundgarden, Pavement, etc.) Stereogum took the idea, embraced it and ran with it, hosting a contest for the best "You might be an Indie-Yuppie if..." line.

The contest winner was:

You might be an IY if you import your entire iTunes library onto your work computer so you can share it on the network and show the other lawyers at your firm how hip you are.

Some of my favorite suggestions from the contest are:

You might be an indie yuppy if, while listening to a new CD, you secretly pray you'll like it.

You might be an Indie Yuppie if you claim to be going to the U2 concert to see Kings of Leon.

You might be an IY if you download every album from a P2P network before it's released so you can listen to it first, then actually buy the CD when it comes out, because you want it "in your collection."

You took out a home equity loan to pay for your trip to SXSW.

You might be an indie-yuppie if the new Bloc Party LP really helped you get through those last few days to make sure you met your billable hours requirement at the end of the month.

Well, apparently Stereogum's contest drew a lot of attention because then, The New York Post wrote an article about Indie-Yuppies which included a quiz to determine whether you are an Indie-Yuppie or not (the full NY Post article can be read in the linked Stereogum post). Even the Oregonian wrote a pretty big article about Indie-Yuppiedom.

Here is the quiz (My answers are in bold):

Are you an indie-yuppie?

1. Do you own a "vintage" T-shirt purchased at Urban Outfitters?

YES NO

2. Have you been "on the list" at a rock show at least once in the past month?

YES NO

3. Are your white iPod earbuds a source of pride?

YES NO

4. Do you know what "grime" is?

YES NO

5. Have you ever done a Web search to find the name of a song used in a VW ad?

YES NO

6. Do you have a Gmail account?

YES NO

7. Did "Garden State" speak to you as no other film ever has?

YES NO

8. Do you own at least one white belt?

YES NO

9. Do you have a fully articulated stance on Bright Eyes?

YES NO

10. Do you regularly read Paste, the NME, and/or The New Yorker?

YES NO

11. Do you have a TiVo?

YES NO

12. If yes, do you have a season pass to one or more of the following: "The O.C.," "Best Week Ever,"

"Gilmore Girls," "Britney & Kevin: Chaotic"?

YES NO

13. Have you ever paid more than $50 for one pair of jeans?

YES NO

14. Do you have a blog?

YES NO

15. Are you confused as to whether or not it’s OK to like Coldplay?

YES NO

SCORING

0-5: Borderline. You have yet to realize that even hipsters enjoy that Kelly Clarkson single.

6-10: On the verge, although you really, truly hate the Arcade Fire.

11-15: The epitome of indie-yuppiedom - but we won’t tell anyone about your trust fund.

I scored a six on the quiz. I have to disagree with that though because I really like the Arcade Fire, and I long ago stopped fighting and embraced the fact that I'm a yuppie.

What about you guys? Are you Indie-Yuppies?