I’m a pretty avid Spotify user, and the app kept trying to shove its “twee” playlist down my throat. Zooey Deschanel and her perfect brown bangs on the cover would constantly pop up in my recommendations after almost any indie rock album I listened to. At first, I hated it. I refused to accept it. Stage One: Denial, right? “My music taste is not twee,” I’d scoff. Who did the Spotify algorithm think it was, trying to put me in the TWEE box? Whenever I thought of “twee” as a concept, I’d think of literally just Zooey Deschanel in her little polka dot dresses and weird patterned skirts on New Girl being the quirky girl next door. Or, alternatively, Zooey Deschanel as Summer in the horrifying psychological thriller (500) Days of Summer (2009), with her equally perfect bangs and equally quirky fits. That is SO not my vibe…or so I thought.
When I actually looked at the definition of the word “twee”, Google informed me that it means something that is “affectedly or excessively dainty, delicate, cute, or quaint”. I guess that checks out, but it leaves me with the question of how can music possibly be twee? That is where the beautifully innocent and adorkable genre of twee pop comes in. It comes as literally no surprise to anyone, but none other than Ms. Deschanel herself also plays a significant role in the twee pop scene with her music thing called She & Him, despite the genre being around since the late 80s.
I’ve really come to discover that this woman is the undefeated Queen of Twee. Not a bad title to have, honestly. Despite Ms. Deschanel’s apparently fruitful efforts to conquer twee, there are tons of bands out there that fall under the twee genre..and many of them are bands that I really like. Spotify overlaps a lot of outsider music with twee, so bands like beat happening, tiger trap, cub, marine girls, brittle stars, etc. will fall under this category. I feel like these make sense. What doesn’t really make sense to me is bands like Joyce Manor and even Vampire Weekend somehow also making the cut. First of all, both of these bands have a wildly different sound. I guess I can kind of see how they’re twee because they’re both relatively endearing, so as much as I don’t want to, I’ll give them the twee pass, since Spotify insists on doing so anyway.
Do you listen to any bands that would be considered twee? There is a decent chance that YOU DO. Spotify will be sure to let you know.