Looking back on "indie rock" from about 30 years ago, onward, I have to wonder if it hadn't been the product of a conspiracy to lower musical standards, especially to make it "okay" to sing like shit. During the "punk" era, a decade before that, it was "okay" to sing and play like shit, on the understood premise that the musicians in question were integral to the social milieu, the music scene, the very audience, for which they were performing. It didn't matter that one couldn't carry a tune in a bucket, it was all about the delivery, and all amongst friends, people who were in on the joke or living the same vibe. The pro singers in the rarefied realm of commercial delivery unto a mass audience had no relation to the dive bars and house parties where "our" bands played; their singing "well" was on the same alien spectrum of presentation ad their stylists, publicists and light shows, which were alienating and irrelevant to those content with going to see their friends, and friends-of-friends, play on a Monday night.
When the musical underground got sucked-up into the stratospheric realm of commercial culture, about 30 years ago, lack-of-chops signaled indie-rock's musicians' integrity and authenticity – now ironically marketable assets – and the unspoken selling-point of their being "one of us." Most of the bands that A&R reps hoovered-up along with lines of coke had, verily, come from local scenes in college towns and second-rate cities. The friends-of-friends, and other musicians, that they left behind on the road to suckcess were, to the record labels, their established "followings," despite that in the scenes from which they arose they were also just other faces in line for the rest rooms at shows in dive bars and at house parties.
Oh, but how great it was for commercially-commodified musicians to finally look like "us" and sing about things we could relate to; even know the stories behind, which made us feel more significantly hip. But then, what about the 10 other bands from the scene who should have gotten broader recognition, or received the major-label largess instead? Well, at least the record label guys didn't make them try to sing "well." On the other hand, their singing like shit made everyone in their commercially-expanded audience feel like part of a scene that got abandoned, betrayed or exploited by the suckcess of the band on stage or in the music video. Singing like shit and playing quaintly out-of-tune made a band seem more "accessible" to people with the tendency to hang back in life, not leave town after finishing college because the music scene was so cool.
It also made people who'd gone on to get serious about life feel as though they were still privy to the secrets, part of the culture, of the young; not selling-out to corporate/adult concerns, making plans to be "the hip parents" while debating whether they should hide certain of their records from their kids when they'd get old enough to understand anything. Whether immersing oneself in adultolescence or dabbling in it on the weekends, indie rock provided the soundtrack, its shitty vocalists granting license to evade the daunting undertaking of appreciating mature art and culture, for which basic white folks have, for at least half a century, been bred not to wield.