The Slow-Burn Indie Sleaze Revival

Have you heard the news? Indie sleaze is back. Or…it might be. It’s hard to tell. 

In 2021, trend forecaster and TikToker Mandy Lee noticed an “obscene amount of evidence that the indie sleaze/Tumblr aesthetic” is returning. That video kicked off an avalanche of think-pieces, speculation, and “What is indie sleaze” guides. 

The genre “indie sleaze” became a signal term for a wide array of fashion and music from the 2000s: bands associated with New York’s indie rock scene (The Strokes, LCD Soundsystem, Yeah Yeah Yeahs); DJs who prognosticated the 2010s EDM boom (Justice, Daft Punk); bad flash photos, and skinny jeans (which I most certainly hope aren’t coming back). 

Then, in March 2022, Vice published an essay calling the revival “Just An Echo Chamber.” In the piece, the writer, Arielle Richards, stated, “Numerous outlets claim the revival of indie sleaze without pointing to any real evidence or discourse other than ‘this TikTokker says so.’” 

“Indie sleaze” is such a broad term (no one actually used it during the 2000s) that it’s difficult to tell what was back if anything was back at all. But now, it amalgamates a mosaic of aughts culture, and two years later, something aughts is in the air. 

While it’s not yet a trend explosion set to launch a new era of popular culture like the aforementioned EDM boom, newer artists are feeding the flames of the revival with their contemporary takes on the genre, and renewed interest in the music of the 2000s. 

Spotify debuted its "Indie Sleaze" playlist in January 2022, shortly after the splurge of publications declared the genre's revival. The playlist’s growth was initially stagnant, gaining around 2k followers per month. However, the playlist saw dramatic growth from November 2022 to March 2023. Followers increased from 17.2k on November 13, 2022, to 75.1k followers by April 2, 2023, a 344% increase. 

This growth is substantial, especially compared to playlists that feature similar music, like Spotify’s “Feel-Good Indie Rock” which saw a 9% increase during the same period, and "Front Page Indie," which only saw a 0.31% increase. Among all of Spotify’s “indie” subset playlists, there is clearly more growth in the sleazy variety.

This growth could stem from the myriad genres and eras represented in “Indie Sleaze” (which further complicates the revival). According to Chartmetric, it draws heavily from rock, electronic, alternative, pop, and dance. Moreover, while the playlist mostly features music from the 2000s, the tracks spread amongst these varying genres also span decades. The editorial playlist has cuts from the ‘80s, like Pixies’ 1988 classic, “Where Is My Mind?” alongside contemporary takes on the style like Julia Fox’s foreboding electronic offering, “Down the Drain,” which came out this past May.

One of the core elements of the revival is renewed interest in New York City’s post-9/11 music scene. Music journalist Lizzy Goodman memorialized the artful, high-energy indie rock of early 2000s NYC in her 2017 book Meet Me In The Bathroom. Just in time for the indie sleaze revival, the book was turned into a documentary in 2022. The brazen energy and NYC cool of artists who appeared in the movie—James Murphy of LCD Soundsystem, Karen O of Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Julian Casablancas of The Strokes—define the sound of the sleaze comeback. 

According to Chartmetric data, The Strokes had a noticeable bump in their audience between 2020 and 2024. Although they released their sixth album The New Abnormal in April 2020, the band hovered between 6 to 9.5 million monthly listeners from 2020 to 2021. After plateauing at around 10 million monthly listeners throughout 2022, their listenership soared from 10.5 million at the end of 2022 to 16.5 million by September 2024. The release of The New Abnormal did not drive the band’s growth. Renewed interest over the past two years did.

Conversely, key “indie sleaze” artist, LCD Soundsystem, did not follow a similar trend to The Strokes. The Spotify Popularity Index—which measures reach and play counts—for the iconic dance-punk group steadily decreased throughout 2022 and 2023. Plus, the Chartmetric Engagement Rank (which measures an artist’s relevance) for James Murphy’s project trended downwards from 2021 to 2024. 

But there are other sleazy artists besides NYC’s 2000s indie rock. The revival also encompasses 2000s electronic and dance artists like The Knife, Justice, and Uffie. French duo Justice helped popularize the French electronic label Ed Banger Records, whose trashy, endlessly fun tracks soundtracked the ragers of the sleaze era. Justice’s 2007 debut Cross is one of the era’s signature albums. Has it been “revived” as part of the new wave of sleaze? 

Cross has seen various cycles of activity since 2021. In January 2022, the album had a Spotify Popularity Index of 66. By June of 2022, this fell 10 points. The index gradually increased through the second half of 2022 and all of 2023, but it didn’t return to its initial peak until February 2024. Given that’s when Justice announced their new album, Hyperdrama, the resurgence is unlikely associated with indie sleaze trends.

Other indie sleaze anthems like Uffie’s 2006 track “Pop The Glock,” saw more concrete increases correlating with the years of the revival. In July 2022, the song saw a massive spike on TikTok, surging from 2,276 views to over 5 million in just two months. The track nearly doubled its playlisting on Spotify from 2022 to 2024. Fellow 2000s electronic tracks such as “Heartbeats” by The Knife, Benny Benassi’s “Satisfaction,” and Mason and Princess Superstar’s “Perfect (Exceder)” also saw clear spikes of activity through 2022, mostly powered by TikTok. 

Of course, no revival would be complete without new artists reinterpreting the genre like New York City’s Harrison Smith, also known as The Dare. Since releasing his acerbic, horn-dog anthem “Girls,” The Dare has been named by countless publications as the leader of the revival. Released on August 5, 2022, “Girls” was almost instantaneously proclaimed as the soundtrack to neo-sleaze—music that harkened back to the raucous parties of the sleaze era. But the song’s performance doesn’t actually match up with the timeline of when indie sleaze was “revived.” 

The press for “Girls” occurred throughout 2022 and 2023. By the end of 2022, the song had about 500k likes on TikTok. That’s a successful release, especially for a debut single via an independent label: Fire Talk (The Dare eventually signed with Republic Records). 

But those numbers do not indicate a full-scale revival. By May 2023, “Girls” had only 2.8 million Spotify streams. The Dare’s second single, the raucous “Good Time,” came out in March 2023, and reached a million streams on Spotify by December. “Girls” and “Good Time” held slow, steady growth throughout 2023 and 2024. The mismatch between The Dare’s press cycle hype and his streaming metrics contributed to much of the skepticism around the indie sleaze revival.

As it turns out, The Dare was laying the groundwork for something larger, or rather, something brattier. 

On June 10, the Queen of brat summer, Charli xcx, released the neo-sleazy tune, “Guess.” Not only did The Dare produce this raunchy electro-banger, Charli shouts him out in the lyrics:

“Wear 'em, post 'em, might remix it/Send them to The Dare, yeah, I think he's with it”

A remix with Billie Eilish was released in August, hitting number one on the UK charts. Then amid this wave, The Dare dropped his anticipated debut What’s Wrong With New York? on September 6. In the last three months, The Dare’s Spotify monthly listeners have skyrocketed by over 2,000%, his Spotify Popularity Index has raised 30 points, and his following across YouTube, Instagram, X/Twitter, and TikTok are up by 100% across the board. Two years after he was crowned king of indie sleaze, The Dare is finally catapulting to a national scale. 

Plenty of other contemporary artists are grouped in with the indie sleaze revival (both to their enthusiasm and chagrin). Given that the revival lacks a clear sound or style, the new class of sleazers covers quite a breadth. There are the pop-rappers Coco & ClairClair, electronic duo Frost Children, and dance-pop artist Snow Strippers. Recently NYC trio Fcukers became the newest entrants into the contemporary sleaze canon. 

Of these neo-sleazy artists, Coco & ClairClair held the highest Chartmetric Score and most Monthly Listeners on Spotify. The duo has been established for the longest, with their first single coming out in 2015. The other artists only recently saw a noticeable increase in streaming activity or social media following. In the last three months, Frost Children are up 211% in monthly listeners, Snow Strippers are up 184%, and Fcukers are up 69%. These artists are only reaching new peaks now, years after the indie sleaze revival was spoken to be true.

Does this revival exist because we declared it so? Or is this a manifestation of shifting tastes? It’s a little bit of both. Most people will still take the indie sleaze revival with a grain of salt, but Chartmetric does point to a genuine trend. The changes across the summer of 2024—the gradual increase in followers for the Indie Sleaze playlist, gaining momentum from newer artists, and The Dare’s rapidly growing profile—point to a genuine revival of indie sleaze. After nearly three years of false starts and dubiousness, the genre’s new acts are finally attracting attention on a larger scale. But at the end of the day, it’s more fun to buy the central tenants sleaze: it’s not that deep. Just have a good time. 

Edited by Harry Levin; cover image by Crasianne Tirado