I don't care if they're imperialist assholes, I kind of like Vampire Weekend

Wouldn't you like them better if they looked like this? You would, wouldn't you.

This is why pop music "criticism" is so terrible: It's all about the simultaneous hatred and attraction of image. If there's a narrative to latch onto, we don't have to do the work of decoding the art itself. And if an artist takes a persona we don't like, God help them.

You might think, what kind of asshole willingly chooses the persona of "prep-school-turned-post-surfer imperialist"? And, well, I can't answer that. I can tell you no one will care about this a year from now.

The more serious charge against Vampire Weekend is that they steal indigenous work. This is indisputable... but it is also indisputable that no composer has ever considered whether putting congas in his symphony is culturally insensitive. Rock music exists only because African drums were put in a kit and paired with guitar. And if modern synth-happy bhangra were made by white people, (white) people would complain that it was bastardization. And it usually is. Terrible.

Should cultural exchange be more equal? Yes. But condemning Vampire Weekend for this problem is silly.

Finally, we accuse them of not having "heart." Are their lyrics vapid and is Ezra Koenig's bored out-of-register singing obnoxious? Of course. But the songs are well-put-together. This is something the crappy band McFadden's going to talk about now could never aspire to.