Kaya Oakes Slanted and Enchanted: The Evolution of Indie Culture

-- Library Journal, 04/15/2009

Oakes, Kaya. Slanted and Enchanted: The Evolution of Indie Culture. Holt. Jun. 2009. c.256p. index. ISBN 978-0-8050-8852-6. pap. $14. MUSIC

Indie culture exists outside of and often rails against mainstream culture—independent record stores in opposition to Best Buy, crafts festivals instead of Ikea, zines as opposed to Rolling Stone. As a corollary, poet Oakes (writing, Univ. of California, Berkeley; Telegraph) reminds us, indie culture has a strong history of reciprocity between producer and consumer; it is a creative community that should produce an equal amount of inspiration and consumption. Oakes locates the evolution of this idealism in the cultural explosion that occurred in the 1950s and 1960s. Covering musicians, zines, comics, independent presses, and homemade crafts and events, Oakes uses the concept of a creative community as a mediating theme to illustrate how indie culture has oscillated between the music and literary scene throughout the last few decades. Ultimately, she questions the future of indie culture in its currently oversaturated and corporate form. Recommended for all public libraries; this will particularly appeal to artists, musicians, writers, and kids with thick-rimmed glasses.—Joshua Finnell, McNeese State Univ. Lib., Lake Charles, LA