Us v. Them

A sweeping and in-depth history of the Brooklyn music scene over ten years in Bloomberg's New York, from a writer and concert producer who had a front-row view of it all

In the tradition of Just Kids and Our Band Could Be Your Life, Ronen Givony’s Us v. Them chronicles the generation of young artists who came to Brooklyn in the mid-2000s: a small but seismic scene that coalesced under a billionaire mayor, a series of forever wars, and a music industry in free fall.

In tandem with the impresarios and unlicensed venues that lined the Williamsburg waterfront, combining elements of noise and pop, a few became unlikely superstars. Meanwhile, countless flared and vanished, reminders of an unusually fertile moment—the age of indie—that now means little more than a term of marketing.

Through reporting, research, and interviews with musicians, industry insiders, and individuals from Pitchfork, Vice, Scion, and the Red Bull Music Academy, Us v. Them examines the rise and fall of indie music in a post-Napster landscape, marked by vast disruption in technology, politics, economics, journalism, and patronage.

At once a social history and an eyewitness account of an improbable decade, Us v. Them gives a critical analysis of what indie music was, is, and will be again in New York City.