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Old 01-15-2006, 11:37 AM   #2 (permalink)
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Subgenres

Indie Rock (or simply “indie”) follows the conventional rock music design, but characteristically incorporates a more distorted and abstract guitar sound and mellow or soft vocals. Many of today’s indie rock bands are heavily influenced by the new wave, grunge, and post-punk movements of the past. Subgenres of indie rock include:
Examples: Neutral Milk Hotel, TV On the Radio, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Pedro The Lion, The Decemberists, Spoon, Pavement, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, Built To Spill, Arcade Fire, Death From Above 1979

Shoegaze- characterized by a blend of melody and very long, noisy guitar riffs with cascades of distortion and feedback. Performers were often motionless onstage. The sound is originally a late 1980s UK movement.
Examples: My Bloody Valentine, Ride, The Boo Radleys, Chapterhouse, Lush, Jesus and Mary Chain, Slowdive, Catherine Wheel

Twee pop- characterized by simple and often bittersweet lyrics and catchy melodies. Twee pop can be characterized as soft and innocent, and has jokingly in the past been referred to as “cuddlecore”. Much of twee-pop has its routes in 60’s pop music.
Examples: Belle and Sebastian, Talulah Gosh, Trembling Blue Stars, The Boy Least Likely To, Camera Obscura (Scotland), and Sodastream

Garage Rock revival
- characterized by very simple and short chords and lyrics, with a raw rock n’ roll sound (sneering vocals and fuzzy guitars). Most of today’s garage rock revival bands are equally influenced by the original punk movement and the grunge movement along with the original garage rock movement of the 1960s.
Examples: The Strokes, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, The White Stripes, The Subways, The Hives, The Vines

New Wave/Post-Punk Revival- Similar to garage rock or the post-punk style of the 1980s, including bands like Gang of Four, Wire, The Talking Heads, The Psychedelic Furs, and Joy Division. The music tends to be slightly more artsy, experimental, and consistent with conventional pop music design compared to punk rock. Some of the modern bands have a funk or dance element in their beat.
Examples: Franz Ferdinand, Interpol, Arcade Fire, Klaxons, Arctic Monkeys, Moving Units, Art Brut, The Dead 60s

Synth Pop and Electro-pop
- Essentially pop songs with simple, melodic choruses and danceable beats from electronic instruments. Unlike electronica, electro-pop incorporates more songwriting along with the synthesizer dance beats.
Examples: The Faint, Ladytron, Fischerspooner, Le Tigre, The Postal Service, Shiny Toy Guns, Figurine, Freezepop, The Rapture, LCD Soundsystem, The Unicorns

Post-rock- Typically ambient or experimental (and sometimes with elements of jazz, rock, or electronica), with emphasis on instrumentation and sound timbres rather than riffs, chords, or in most cases vocals. Today’s post-rock is heavily influenced by Stereolab, Mogwai, and Tortoise.
Examples: Explosions in the Sky, Do Make Say Think, Godspeed! You Black Emperor, 65 Days of Static, Sigur Ros, Broken Social Scene, Shalabi Effect, Amusement Parks on Fire

Indie pop- Can be best described as conventional pop or pop-rock with unconventional lo-fi qualities. Generally an ambiguous term, considering many of its inherent bands can fit under other sub-categories.
Examples: The Dresden Dolls, Tegan and Sara, Stars, Mates of State, Metric, Death Cab For Cutie, Architecture in Helsinki, Tilly and the Wall, Islands, The Fiery Furnaces, Rilo Kiley, New Pornographers, Of Montreal, Frou Frou

Dream pop- characterized by soft, echoed, and often mumbled vocal delivery. Dream pop is closely related to twee pop and shoegaze, with slightly more ambience. Some bands, like Low, are considered “slowcore”, which typically contains more minimalist arrangements.
Examples: Mazzy Star, Galaxie 500, Red House Painters, Mercury Rev, Magnetic Fields, Flaming Lips

Trip hop- A combination of hip-hop breakbeats, downtempo electro or house music, and/or acid jazz.
Examples: Portishead, Sneaker Pimps, Bjork, Massive Attack, Martina Topley-Bird, Tricky, Zero7, Kosheen, Morcheeba

Noise Rock- Characterized by loud, heavy, and distorted guitars and minimal (or lack of) musical structure. Along with post-rock, noise rock is often labeled as “avante garde.” It began around the 1980s, progressing from the punk movement and straying from the usual indie/rock 4/4 beat. More recent bands are often almost entirely instrumental.
Examples: The Melvins, The Jesus Lizard, Shellac, Arab on Radar, US Maple, Melt Banana, Zeni Geva, Unsane, Deerhoof, Black Dice, Tad, Comets on Fire, Lightning Bolt, Shellac

Indie folk/Singer-Songwriters- Typically composed of acoustic instruments and basic drumming (if any) with a lot of harmony and strong choruses thoughout. The singers (often unusual) voice and acoustic guitar being the primary instruments of music.

Phil Ochs, often overshadowed by Bob Dylan, started out singing political protest songs such as ‘I Ain't Marching Any More’ supporting the anti-war movement and songs about civil rights and other injustices. Although similar to simple acoustic, folk seems to often thrive on the political element. Bert Jansch, from Scotland, took the American folk structure and made it more eclectic. That's what indie folk is - taking folk music, famous for being simple, acoustic-based music, and adding something, taking away from its simplicity and making it your own style. For most, this means becoming bigger and badder, adding electric guitar, drums, and other less classically ‘acoustic’ instruments to customize their own individual sound using folk. Examples of this are Bob Dylan’s second album, using electric guitar. Going heavier still, Jimmy Page even noted folk musician Bert Jansch as one of his main influences in his picking; while Tim Buckley fused jazz into his folk-style to make his own indie-folk sylings.

Examples: Azure Ray, Regina Spektor, Feist, Beirut, Kimya Dawson (The Moldy Peaches), Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds, Phil Ochs, Elliott Smith, PJ Harvey, Iron & Wine, Bonnie “Prince” Billy, Sufjan Stevens, Nick Drake


Last edited by hookers with machineguns; 11-21-2007 at 01:37 AM.
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