Get Ready for Rock Girl Summer

A new breed of musical style melds aughts nostalgia with 2020s DIY

- By Katy Kelleher

Getting dressed is, in a sense, always a prelude to a performance. It’s your daily pregame routine, the moment when you pull on a pair of flared pants or a crochet dress, add a scarf or earrings, take off one thing, then brace yourself for leaving the house. Musicians know this better than anyone, which is perhaps why they so often lead the way into new style territory. For the past several seasons, when it came to the intersection of music and style, the street sign might as well have been emblazoned with the words “indie sleaze.” But something softer, more like “indie sweet,” has been brewing backstage, sending the 2010s club-kid cliché in a new direction—one that is texture-rich, craft-forward, and brushed with the glittering, sepia-tinted gold of Daisy Jones & the Six’s Laurel Canyon look. It’s glam rock meets art school, vintage-inflected but still contemporary, complete with lean lines and impeccable construction. It’s a hit song, and we’re all listening.