Tokyo Police Club

Bands like Tokyo Police Club are drastically changing the definition of the term “indie rock.” Sure, the group possesses the shrill, lightly distorted guitars and cutesy nice-guy vocals that have become synonymous with the genre, but when you’re a band as big as this one, the term “independent” really no longer applies. Tokyo Police Club has performed on Letterman three separate times and also acted as a band called “Cold Splash” in an episode of Desperate Housewives, in which they competed in a fake battle of the bands. The bandmembers have also shaken their money-makers at massive festivals like Coachella and Lollapalooza. Like catwalk-strutting models wearing plaid after the explosion of grunge, the mainstream is turning indie rock into something different and molding it into a definition barely recognizable by bands like this, who are helping to marginalize it.