Fu expanded on a simple premise/contemporary cultural trend: food is the latest hipster obsession.

You mean he took something that is noticeable and tried to explain a theory of how the underlying reason for the phenomenon and did it in a pretty concise and entertaining manner?

It's easy to be numb and lazy and not try to learn about the world at large, buddy.

His lady's done stuff for Austinist; she's a better way in than me at this point.

Sorta related/sorta not: The ACL Fest Web site has a schedule function that lets you log in and "add" a band to your personal schedule, and see how many people total have added/scheduled each band on the lineup. A couple years ago I realized this was a pretty interesting dataset and started doing a weekly analysis of who was gaining the most buzz headed into the festival.

The very top of the list was usually predictable (headliners, nostalgia acts, etc) but the teens through 40s or so could be pretty revealing. Like last year, Pete-Fucking-Yorn (playing early the first day) was more popular than Phish (a headliner), and we saw early that Edward Sharpe and The Black Keys were going to be huge breakthrough bands.

Last week I did the first installment for this year's lineup (working on the new one right now) and some of the points made above do bear out. Here's the top 25;

• Arcade Fire 10,797
• Coldplay 9,413
• Stevie Wonder 9,209
• Kanye West 8,183
• Fleet Foxes 7,411
• Iron And Wine 7,138
• Cee Lo 6,861
• Cold War Kids 6,569
• Ray LaMontagne 6,236
• My Morning Jacket 6,118
• TV On The Radio 5,897
• Bright Eyes 5,734
• Foster The People 5,504
• Santigold 4,884
• Cut Copy 4,705
• Broken Social Scene 4,565
• Empire Of The Sun 4,465
• Nas/Damian Marley 4,441
• Sara Bareilles 4,163
• The Airborne Toxic Event 3,959
• Big Boi 3,940
• Alison Krauss & Union Station 3,917
• Young The Giant 3,858
• Fitz and the Tantrums 3,801
• Chromeo 3,776

Some "Silent Majority" Bands: Cold War KIds (barely any blog love anymore, they're a college dude-bro band now), Ray LaMontagne (maybe?), Foster The People (this year's Edward Sharpe, no question), Airborne Toxic Event (duh), Young The Giant (I have no idea who they are, but I know they fit the profile), Fitz and the Tantrums.

The one that baffles me: Empire Of The Sun. That's Luke from The Sleepy Jackson and some other guy doing a uber-fey MGMT/Cut Copy impersonation, with what looks like a bonkers lights and effects show live. I had no idea they're 1/10th this popular and I'm spending the next 6 weeks getting to the bottom of what's causing it.

Lots of commercial/film placement...20 something goes to look up who does "that song" and sees the crazy videos and they're hooked...its how it works.

I'm gonna go so far as to add Pretty Lights and Bassnectar to this category...

Jesus Christ, I've never even heard of these bands. That damned Magiska thread has doomed me.

Mind you if it doesn't hit the CBC3, I'm in the dark. That's about as far as I go these days and it's done me well for introductions to a lot of new bands.

MDMA and hipster pussy



MDMA and hippie pussy

i kind of like that foster the people album but it's nothing i'd consider to be a great album. just some fun summer music.

Sara Bareilles is another one that confounds me. One big pop it in 2007, middling success since then, though she has managed to stay visible in various TV tie-ins, movies and such. Still, not someone I'd think people would care all that much about.

This week's totals bear out what we were talking about w/ Foster The People, who jumped seven spots for what I'm pretty sure is the biggest jump since I started compiling this 2 years ago and an audience gain of 49%. That's unheard of.

Arcade Fire 12300
Coldplay 10628
Stevie Wonder 10356
Kanye West 9121
Fleet Foxes 8395
Foster The People 8210
Iron And Wine 8119
Cee Lo 7627
Cold War Kids 7204
Ray LaMontagne 7128
My Morning Jacket 6851
TV On The Radio 6738
Bright Eyes 6538
Santigold 5562
Cut Copy 5424
Broken Social Scene 5246
Empire Of The Sun 5136
Nas/Damian Marley 4969
Sara Bareilles 4640
The Airborne Toxic Event 4543
Young The Giant 4541
Fitz and the Tantrums 4468
Big Boi 4420
Alison Krauss & Union Station 4376
Chromeo 4264

And high-five to Gar for pointing out that A.V. Club bit, which I'm totally bringing up and pontificating on for this week's Buzzmeter story.

edit: the only other moves in the top 25 were Fitz and The Tantrums and Young The Giant, who each gained a spot. "Silent majority rock" moves the needle, apparently.

kudos to FU. I just put it in a neat little succinct package. Definitely not as interesting, but an observation still.

All of the sudden I'm seeing a lot of cars with huge logo stickers on the rear window of this band. Mostly accompanied by Element and other skater stickers.

It's sort of "epic" rock ala Muse maybe? or U2-ish without going down the complete and open puscatore route of Coldplay?

I think of them like Mr. Burns "I know what I hate - and I don't hate this"

When I first heard it I thought "this sounds like music my dumb friends who don't 'have time' or 'can't keep up' would actually like"

and then they're so shit all stupid they couldn't even figure out downloading the mediafire link I sent to them.

lollapalooza has had a similar schedule function since '07 or '08. every year there's some random midday act that outranks numerous headliners. last year it was edward sharpe on a side stage with thousands of clicks over the strokes and even soundgarden (and that was the big soundgarden reunion show). then, of course, that side stage was completely bananas with people literally a quarter-mile away and hanging from trees. but the strokes and soundgarden drew huge crowds that dwarfed it anyway.

oh, and empire of the sun is a huge deal. their coachella set was straight-up wacko. it doesn't surprise me that their bandwagon's filling up. i mean, they're playing opposite prince at a festival in sweden next week and there's discussion on its forum about who to see in that time slot. i'm pretty sure you always pick prince.

Could it be because food is something tangible, something that won't fit into our cyberspace?

You can eat it, even.

For the record, Pitchfork did review the Foster the People record, but I agree with your overall point Loogs.

Meanwhile, scroll down to the bottom right of the Pitchfork home page and check out the recent activity. All Obs.

This is based on your Facebook friends. Some of mine aren't Obs.

This is a very interesting discussion that I'd like to contribute more to, but I think most of it relies on living in an urban area. That disqualifies me.

OIC...Yep, if any pitchfork activity is gonna take place among my facebook friends, it's gonna be Obs.

I feel like there is a tad bit of over-intellectualizing going on in here.

I feel like there is nothing silent about Mumford's popularity at all. They're straight mainstream right now. The original writer from AV Club claims people who get their news from Pitchfork would have no idea who these bands are despite the fact that Pitchfork reviewed both Mumford and Foster the People. Seems like they aren't a Pitchfork type band anyway. They aren't for the fan who still thinks Animal Collective's "Sung Tongs" is the end all be all in modern music. Mumford was most likely passed around by the Dave Matthews/Zac Brown Band crowd or talked about on the Avett Brothers message boards or even country music act message boards. They've played the Grammy's and were on just about every major music rag's top 20 last year.

I guess I just view some of these bands of simply having, however defined, the widest appeal. Much like how when we used to do a Top 25 for the year and it would ultimately turn out very vanilla and resembling most every other publications lists. Mostly due to the homogenous nature of doing those sorts of exercises.

As for Foster the People, I feel like people are just now taking notice of them. I mean, that record has only been out about 2 months. "Pumped Up Kicks" is instantly catchy and recognizeable IMO and sometimes that's all you need.

I mean, didn't MGMT go from relative obscurity to headlining one of the Bonnaroo tents in about 16 months? That was pretty much on the strength of "Time To Pretend" and "Electric Feel" singles and a pretty meh album.

Bands come out of nowhere all the time.

Oh and Fu, definite interesting take on the Food Trucks.

I feel like there may be some of that at play but I also think here in Atlanta it's also due to realistic factors as well. We just recently in the past couple of years been allowed by law to actually allow these trucks to sell food and also I think the recession also has played a small part in this move by many places. Low overhead, and, if you have a brick and mortar store, to have essentially 2 restuarants serving lunch every day.

The silent majority rock thing sounds like a new name for bland, boring music with broad appeal.

I think there is something there to the food truck comparison, but I'm not sure I buy the whole thing about it being because Gex X is just so indie. I think there is an element of that at play, and there is certainly a generational thing where food has become as hip and trendy as music for a lot of people, even a lot of people who wouldn't have given a fuck years ago. Maybe more than calling it another Gex X adventure in DIY, it could be more accurately be another chance to try to find something outside the mainstream after watching their music and other cultural accouterments sold back to them by their corporate masters in short order, as exemplified by the "alternative" music boom that finally led to garbage like Nickleback taking over the airwaves, strip-mall, overpriced tattoo parlors and even a national chain of mall-based piercing stands.

Also, I think Gen X inclinations to go outside the mainstream may be driven in large part by pure numbers. Being a smallish generation sandwiched between two fairly massive generations, Gen X will never really hold cultural sway the way the Baby Boomers did or how the Generation Y or the Millennials or whatever they're called will. Operating as a minority voice in the cultural landscape is really the only choice Gen X has.

Dude, that Bulgogi is like crack. I could eat a half dozen every time I sit down there (which is about once a week). They now have specific places that all the trucks go every day of the week. For instance, there is a food truck park over off Howell Mill behind Willy's. I think they gather there on Tuesdays. They're at Atlantic Station on Friday, etc, etc. I enjoyed but it seems like it might just be a summe thing only. The appeal for me was walking the trucks and having options and then sitting outside. I can't see doing that in the winter.

Also, your shit better be good. For example, the Hankook truck was about a dozen people deep and hot dog guy didn't get a soul the entire time we were there.

I think there is also something to be said for the rise of the rock star chef in the last 15 or so years since the Food Network and shows like Top Chef exploding. Now it seems like every idiot with a gimmick has some cooking show. Hell, there are probably more food related shows on television than music shows now. Could also be another sign of a generation getting older.

Hip and new restaurants are either a reaction against the Bobby Flay's of the world or because of. I'm not sure.

But whereas mainstream pap used to be unavoidable, now it is entirely avoidable - to the point where despite it's popularity I've never heard a Zac Brown Band song, I'd never heard of Foster The People before this article, and while I've heard of Mumford, their overly earnest sensibilities (A Fucking Train Tour?) combined with their roots in the Jebus Rock camp and the relative MEHness of their overall sound, makes me try to avoid them, and people who listen to them, like their predecessor DMB.