Us v. Them

<B>A sweeping and in-depth history of the Brooklyn music scene over ten years in Bloomberg's New York, from a writer and concert producer who had a front-row view of it all</B><BR/><BR/> In the tradition of <I>Just Kids</I> and <I>Our Band Could Be Your Life</I>, Ronen Givony’s <I>Us v. Them</I> chronicles the generation of young artists who came to Brooklyn in the mid-2000s: a small but seismic scene that coalesced under a billionaire mayor, a series of forever wars, and a music industry in free fall.<BR/><BR/> In tandem with the impresarios and unlicensed venues that lined the Williamsburg waterfront, combining elements of noise and pop, a few became unlikely superstars. Meanwhile, countless flared and vanished, reminders of an unusually fertile moment—the age of indie—that now means little more than a term of marketing.<BR/><BR/> Through reporting, research, and interviews with musicians, industry insiders, and individuals from <I>Pitchfork</I>, Vice, Scion, and the Red Bull Music Academy, <I>Us v. Them</I> examines the rise and fall of indie music in a post-Napster landscape, marked by vast disruption in technology, politics, economics, journalism, and patronage.<BR/><BR/> At once a social history and an eyewitness account of an improbable decade, <I>Us v. Them</I> gives a critical analysis of what indie music was, is, and will be again in New York City.<BR/>