Dotoar

Of indie bands that have made it somewhat big? Flaming Lips, Mew, Phoenix, MGMT, Arctic Monkeys, Belle&Sebastian, Mercury Rev, Sígur Rós, Radio Dept. to name a few.

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sleepy jack

I just had this weird image of Elliott Smith with a harp. God that would get me off.

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Zer0

'Indie' is a word that was coined by the media. It was a genre created by the media in the early 80's to pigeonhole emerging bands like The Smiths and Orange Juice for example who were playing a particular style of music and just so happened to be on independent record labels. The term just stuck over the years and was used by the media to pigeonhole bands with that 'indie' sound (which itself has evolved a bit over the years) regardless of their record label status. The right use of the term 'indie' should really be applied to bands on independent record labels but that would cover a lot of musical styles and would make it difficult for the media to pigeonhole bands.

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RVCA

I just feel uncomfortable using "indie" to describe an artist's sound. It's like using "classic rock" as a genre. It's not really a genre, it just refers to rock music that was made during a certain time period. Similarly, "indie" refers to an attribute of the music that isn't necessarily a descriptor of its sound.

Mangaeyes

I think it has become a genre. Like pop - pop is supposed to be popular but it has its own distinctive sound.

Indie doesn't just mean independent anymore - I think its become its own genre.

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Odyshape

I think indie has its different effects when combined with different genres as kind of a prefix. Like indie rock by now has been pretty easy to identify as a certain sound (atleast for me) whereas as you guys said other "indie" genres aren't so easy like indie folk.

Hank The Drifter

I'm bad about plugging indie in front of a genre all the time. I'm not sure why I do it. I guess I do that to help separate the bands. For instance, I use 'folk' to explain Woody Guthrie but then I also use 'folk' to explain Tallest Man on Earth and those two are so different I feel that they can't possible be in the same genre so when I am suggesting TMoE to someone I just say 'indie folk' and usually they understand. Its probably more a bad habit than it is so much thinking its an entire genre itself lol.

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TheBig3

Indie has never shied away from Major Label Commercial Success. Thats just some angry piss-ants revisionist history of the sound. Its certainly a genre. I can't name one genre that has a universally mutual sound.

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Gavin B.

The term "indie" doesn't describe any sort of musical genre. My own understanding of indie is that the term describes any kind of music produced by an independent music label as opposed to one of the four major labels that dominate the music industry.

Independent labels are responsible for producing most of the recorded music for the less commercially viable genres, like folk music, jazz, reggae and afrobeat. From my perspective nearly any music (regardless of genre) that is produced by an independent label is "indie" music. The confusion about exactly what indie music is began with the misuse of the "alternative" by the major label to market rock music in the early Nineties.

The term "indie" came into usage when the four major labels began marketing rock music using the catch phrase "alternative." Musically savvy folks began using the term indie to make a distinction between independent label music & major label music that was hyped as alternative music. In the 90's many major labels set up wholly owned boutique labels to fool the public into believing that they were purchasing music produced by an independent label. A lot of music buyers, myself included, shop by label and prefer indie label music because the music content is far more interesting than most music produced by the four major labels.

There have been indie labels around since the Fifties. If I'm not mistaken, Blue Note was the first indie label. Blue Note was established to record and market some of the less commercial bebop jazz artists that the major labels weren't interested in signing or recording. Miles Davis & Thelonious Monk recorded a great deal of music on Blue Note before the major label, Columbia Records decided sign them on and market contemporary jazz to a larger mainstream audience.

Here's of the most prominent independent labels

ROCK
Sub Pop
Dischord
Factory
Touch and Go
Matador
SST
4AD

FOLK MUSIC
Rounder
Red House

REISSUES & RARE MUSIC
Rykodisc
Rhino

REGGAE & WORLDBEAT
Greensleeves
Ras Records

JAZZ
Blue Note
Verve

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There are two types of music: the first type is the blues and the second type is all the other stuff.
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TheBig3

Anyone who's come to the forum is likely aware of that, and if they weren't they are. I'm sure everyone rolls there eyes when I do this, but who was recording music for non-commercial gains? Why record at all if this is the case? Unless you're showing your unborn grandchild how well you could play, there isn't really a reason.

And in any sort of free market society, its hard to imagine who wouldn't be truly independent. In todays modern technocracy, we don't even need labels and the idea that in an "independent" artist would even bother with labels is obsolete.

I think theres the idea in angry young folks that for some reason we should do the opposite of bands we hate, as if to destroy them. But anyone who's been out of high school for 3 years should understand there isn't a social political identity in the real world (primarily because you have real problems to deal with) and associating yourself with artist A or B means very little.

And to comment on a different side of the same coin, I'd argue that people who do this don't truly appreciate music. If you can't find 1 good thing (honest thing) to say about the band you hate the most then you're missing the point. To drudge up a cliche here, anger isn't the opposite of love, indifference is. The band you care least about isn't on your radar. For an act to draw so much emotion from you, they've at least done 1 thing right. Until you see that, you don't get music.

The idea of independence from commercialism is some ridiculous notion that what sells is bad. To get to the radical root of the math, its because you think the masses are stupid. To one end, thats because they aren't as invested as you are, to the other - so what? Understand that the music other people like wasn't dwelled upon for hours. Had it been, they may have come to the same conclusion as you, or at least a more tolerable one.

There is nothing of value from independence beyond the individual. As a listener you're never without an option, so why the rage? In the West, the "dollar" rules, so rage with your money. Thats the only thing that makes anyone give a **** anymore. Well, that or an unexpected tit shot on a childrens show but you can't buy that. I know. I've tried.

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