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Manic Street Preachers' frontman James Dean Bradfield has launched a broadside into the current state of indie music in the UK, characterising new bands as "gap year music".

James Dean Bradfield

In an interview with Scotland's , Bradfield said that he thought of most new indie music as being something people do as a hobby break before returning to conventional jobs.

"I think it is still easy to fall in love with a record but it's not so easy to fall in love with a band," he said. "I don't look at a band now and think that it is going to be amazing... I don't see a story unfolding with bands because it is gap year music. It seems like somebody has said, 'I think I'll do an album then my dad will give me a job in the accountancy firm'.

"I was looking at the Top 40 and it's like the indie wars never happened. It's as if Manchester, Seattle and Britpop never existed. Britpop meant guitar bands were in the top five every week. For a guitar band to be in the Top 40 now is a rare thing. It's all pop music. It is really depressing."

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