Take a look at the career of film composer John Williams. He was a classically trained graduate of Julliard and has composed “serious” classical works, but he also played piano and done some jazz pieces. If he only did Star Wars-style scores for every movie he is hired to compose music for, he’d be one very limited artist. Instead, Williams taps into music from different genres and cultures and can pretty much score anything – from a Western like 1972’s The Cowboys to a movie set in Japan (an Eastern?) such as Memoirs of a Geisha – and remain fresh and creatively flexible.

Back to indie/pop/rock bands: While I know that some listeners love one particular style of song and stick to it, I get bored really fast with a band that adopts one style and never wavers from it. That’s why, I think, I never tire of listening to The Beatles or Billy Joel; those acts had a habit of morphing their styles when they saw they needed to evolve musically.

As for the point of musical diversity; I think musician-ship is defined not by just how good you can play/sing but how wide you can cast your net over the waters of styles. I think diversity is what makes such big-label legends of the past as The Beatles, Elton John, and Billy Joel so popular even after the band ceased to exist and at least one of the two piano men has gone into pop-music retirement. Young bands, particularly indie ones, should take heed and not simply get locked into one style.