It thoroughly irritates me that...
 

The term 'indie' has such awful connotations over here in the United Kingdom. People here tend to see 'indie' as synonymous with the sort of punk/rock music played by bands like the Libertines and their infinite legion of followers. And if not that, then the recent wave of dance punk/new rave etc. Even if some of those bands are good...hell, even if the Libertines were good...it still does absolutely no justice to the true scope of 'indie' music and leaves millions of people thinking that that's all 'indie' truly means.

Of course, it's not the fault of the population that indie in the UK has assumed these connotations. If they only ever HEAR the word 'indie' in connection with the sorts of bands in question, then how are they to know better? The real blame lies with the idiots in this country who are inspired to become 'indie' musicians. The narrow-mindedness and highly restricted tastes all begins with them. They form their bland, derivative, shameless copycat excuses for bands, inspired by little more than 2 or 3 influences (at the MAX), and their attitudes percolate to the rest of the population.

Musicians in the UK, wake the **** up! Hardly anybody outside of your pathetic little UK fanbase of screaming teens is interested in the sort of music you're determined to make. Stop monopolizing the concept of 'indie' music. Distance yourself from the title. Because I'm damn sick and tired of being told by people that they hate indie music, when what they REALLY mean is that they hate YOU.

I'm so bored of the amount of crap coming out of this country.
Of course people will say 'it's out there , you just have to look for it' but that's not the point.
I remember when I was able to pick up an indie orientated music paper and read about bands as diverse as Tindersticks , PJ Harvey , The Auteurs , Denim , Massive Attack , Gallon Drunk and a whole host of other bands who were sort of on the cusp of being mainstream acts (Mainstream to music fans as opposed to mainstream as in a household name).

There's plenty of reasons for this , the monopoly of the 5 major labels , DJ's who are content to play a bland playlist without wanting to play anything challenging , the number of music papers going from 4 to now just 1 , the NME , probably the worst of the 4. And I blame the fans too for accepting this crap.

Could you imagine bands like Hard Fi or The Kooks getting signed to a record label like 4AD or Creation in their prime?

Me neither.

I know it's only a very small part of this puzzle but do you think that the passing away of John Peel has any bearing on this? I can't think of any DJ'S now who REALLY push bands through. People keep bigging up Zane Lowe, so I gave him a listen once. Terribly generic. The lack of a decent music journal is definitely a factor and I don't read any music papers at all anymore. I rarely watch music channels but they are crap too. Same old same old.

I don't think it's just down to Peel.

Radio 1 also had Mark Radcliffe , Annie Nightingale , Danny Baker , Steve Lamacq , Stuart Marconie , Andy Kershaw.

I think all of them have gone now to be replaced by safe non entities like Fearn Cotton & Jamie Theakston

Annie is still there and does a great Beats & Breaks show but it's not exactly her forte. Andy Kershaw is an old drunk :D

Zane Lowe is sh*t and on the label payroll and so is this f*cking country. None of the DJ's Urban mentioned can touch John Peel, the real test being that he always played at least one or two things you didn't like (happy hardcore or something); and he had a down-to-earth confidential quality you don't get from the sprightly disc jockey yelping at you about some **** band trying to live up to his reputation. It's probably more of a taste thing.
Stuart Maconie has done some good stuff on telly I don't know about his radio show.

I have a couple of friends making art, music and truth who have been trying to get noticed since 2003 in various incarnations and the boot-licking c*nts they share bills with you wouldn't believe.
Bands that have ended up on that Pop Idol rip-off Channel 4 show with Alex James on the judge panel, just utter utter sh*t, and they all call themselves 'indie' because they play guitars and don't lip-sync. Well somebody give these guys a medal!

Life's too short to even try and maintain any kind of originality and dignity as a new band and still hope to sell records and get airplay, all the good stuff gets neutered or silenced and that's why there aren't any Captain Beefhearts around

It really pisses me off when bands/artists try and do something creative (Ex. Captain Beefheart) and they are branded as "weird" and cast aside. I just find it sickening really. Why would you reject such a delightful music video MTV, why?

i agree...

Yeah... I have people tell me that they hate indie because they don't like the Libertines, Babyshambles, etc. I wish people really understood the concept of indie!!! In my mind the word "indie" is not the name of a genre but rather a concept including music by artists that intentionally try to stray from the mainstream. Copying a couple other bands and having a bunch of teenage girls screaming at your concerts does not make you an "indie" band. The term really should be used to describe independent music, not any specific genre.

And loose lips, so true. The thing that I don't understand is how that's determined. I mean, people just need to give music a chance. Who cares if it's weird in the eyes of MTV or any of that crap? They hardly even play music videos anymore...

I think this is a phenomenon that predominates in the US as well. As recently as a few years ago we've been encountering numerous "alternative" bands that are just re-hashed, re-packaged generic post-grunge crap that's been on the radio for years.