MusicLover341

Chaotica is one of my favorites next to Marilyn Manson! I love their song church of man!

a4m

Define "indie", because it doesn't really describe any type of music for me. It only defines their status as far as labels go.

mitchell_stretch

Bands not on major labels. So you know the standard definition of indie.

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a4m

We already know this, but people often call bands on major labels "indie" and it doesn't make sense. That's what I had asked.

mitchell_stretch

well those people arent too bright then

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Justthefacts

Arctic Monkeys

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Terrapin_Station

A sense of "indie" that's been used for decades is the same as what Rolling Stone magazine used to call "college rock"--they used to have "college rock" charts at the back of the magazine (circa the late 70s or early-to-mid 80s). There are "family resemblance" musical characteristics to it--which isn't the case if you're using the term to strictly refer to artists not on major labels (and that's murky anyway, because just what counts as a major label isn't necessarily clear).

Janszoon

So the music genre is irrelevant then—could be polka or jazz or Andean pan flute music or what have you, just as long as it's not a major label?

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Time & Place

25 Albums You Should Hear Before the Moon Crashes into the Earth and We All Die

last.fm

Lisnaholic

For me, this is an interesting thread to bump, thisisthelasttime. Thanks.

Most interesting to me is the struggle to pin down the sound of the genre:-

As Janszoon neatly implies, "bands not on major labels" is an insufficient definition for a musical genre because it doesn't refer to the sound or style of the music. You might as well have, as a musical genre, "Bands who have Japanese cars".

To me, latecomer to the genre, "indie" is a type of rock, slightly out of the mainstream, because its unpolished , homemade sound isn't as popular as classic pop/rock. Key elements of "indie rock" are grungey guitars, singers who haven't been auto-tuned and lyrics that are quirky/cryptic as opposed to lyrics written to appeal to as many people as possible, as was the unquestioned goal of lyric writing back in the days of Tin Pan Alley. "Indie" also has a date limit, because the term was invented when? In the 90s? Before that, your band couldn't be indie; you were "bubbling under" or "struggling" or "underground" or you had "a cult following."

If my description is accurate in any way, then the first indie band I listened to was Tindersticks. IMO they warrent more attention than they get on MB, so here's a taster:-



EDIT: Some YouTuber has put the label, "chamber pop" on Tindersticks, and they do perhaps sound insufficiently grungy to be true indie rock. But then again, this song has the F word in it, which means it can't be pop, right? It's subversive, man!

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