Indie Music: the style, the love, the irony

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Indie Music: the style, the love, the irony

April 14th 2006 03:34

Broken Social Scene - The epitome of maturity

Hey waddya know, I'm not that lazy after all. Nevertheless, let me clear something up - I am not an indie elitist. I like bands normally classified as indie - We Are Scientists, Bloc Party, and The Strokes on the rockier side; Sufjan Stevens, Animal Collective and The Shins with their folk/country music. Apart from the fact that there tends to be alot of indie music with very country influences (which I don't really appreciate), I do enjoy the majority of indie music. However, I am in no way restrictive in my music tastes to indie. On the contrary, I appreciate alot of music that is regarded by established indie elitists as the "mainstream" product of "corporate puppets." Blink 182 (their later stuff), Panic! At the Disco, The Academy Is - my music tastes are in no way subject to their genre. But it begs the question, who are indie elitists, and what the hell is indie music anyway?

Animal Collective - Scary...

Indie music is, essentially, any music that is produced and created under an independent record label, separate from the "corporate materialism" that is monopolised by huge companies such as Sony. Thus, any music that is not indie is unheard of by elitists. The rise of fascination in independent music arguably began with the Velvet Underground in the late 60s. From then until the early 80s, punk and its successor, post-punk were the order of the day for indie fans everywhere and, apart from the rare breakout like the Clash, punk and post-punk remained underground dwellers. Head to the mid-80s, however, and suddenly the rebellion characterised in punk music was the envy of every British and American teenager. Thus, punk became mainstream, and indie elitists hungered for music to call their own again. Enter the 21st century, and indie music is once again a desirable commodity. However, unlike its origins, indie music is now subject to much scrutiny as to the music it actually encompasses, as there are various genres all under the heading of "indie." Here's a brief listed, accompanied by my favourite bands (if applicable) under each:

New Folk - Sufjan Stevens, Iron and Wine, The Elected, The Shins
Freak Folk (beware) - Animal Collective
Dance Punk - I guess Panic! at the Disco could be part of this, though I would dispute it as indie
Garage rock - really general, by basically covers The Strokes, Bloc Party, We Are Scientists etc.
Nu Gaze - My favourite in this case is M83, which can only be described as dance music as done by Pink Floyd. Sigur Ros also has some excellent music in this particular genre.
Indietronic - Postal Service, Electric President, The Bravery, The Killers, Tigercity
Mellow - My own genre which I couldn't be bothered naming properly. Would encompass Death Cab for Cutie (though I don't really like them), Athlete(excellent band) and Snow Patrol.
Indiepsych - Another of my own genres, which I created to encompass such bands as Hot Hot Heat which combine poppy melodies with basically any type of sound to psych out the listener slightly.

The Bravery - Beatles meets 80s

And thus you have it - indie in a nutshell. Seem complicated? That's because that's what indie elitists want. Their desire is for it to be theirs and their alone - as soon as its mainstream they don't like it anymore, even if it was their favourite band under an indie label. There are two ironies in this. The first is that, should you publicly state your dislike of a particular indie band, say Broken Social Scene, an indie elitist will either cringe, or use any force necessary to make sure you agree with them (see the logic?) The second irony is, of course, that indie music has suffered the same fault that punk as a genre did 20 years ago - it became mainstream. As much as indie elitists wish to deny it, indie music is now popular, and there is nothing they can do to stop it. While the music is still technically under indie labels, it remains popular. Why? Because people always want to be different, to the extent that they will follow someone else who seems different, creating a trend of this until absolutely everyone is different and yet the same. Of course, it is also the fault of TV, with shows such as the Loop continually using Hot Hot Heat songs to carry its story, whereas teeny bopper soapie The O.C. is definitely the biggest perpretator of this. Not that I blame them - alot of it is good music, and I have the O.C. to thank for introducing me to such artists as Imogen Heap.

Athlete - British Genius

Nevertheless, indie has suffered a death that has indie elitists everywhere crying out for justice. My response? The same as that of the emo genre - like music that you like, not music that everyone else does. Nor should go after a particular type of image. It IS cool to be different, but it has to be a different that is different to everyone else's different. Best example of this has to be street fashion in Japan. Damn they've got some wierd people over there...

Anyways, linkies:

Indie Quiz

How to be an Indie

Indie Rock Wiki

Indie Music Wiki

Questionable Content - The quintessential indie webcomic. My advice is start from the beginning.

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Posted By: Jimbo - Category: Genre Explanation

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Comments

5 Comments. [ Add A Comment ]

Comment by Cibbuano

April 17th 2006 22:09

Hunt Famous
Orble Post of the Day
Fat Cult
Techbreak

good post! Informative!

Check your links... some of them are all messed up!

Comment by Jimbo

April 17th 2006 23:48

They're all fine for me. What's the problem?

Comment by Cibbuano

April 17th 2006 23:56

Hunt Famous
Orble Post of the Day
Fat Cult
Techbreak

Some of the links just link back to this post. ie the Strokes

Comment by Jimbo

April 18th 2006 00:31

Looks like all the links within the actual post are screwed. I'll try and fix them as soon as possible.

Thanks for the headsup

Comment by Jimbo

April 18th 2006 06:45

Thanks for various problems and my distinct lack of HTML knowledge, it took a while, but I can assure you that the links are now in perfect working order. Enjoy!

[ Previous - Angels & Airwaves: Breaking the mould ]

[ Next - What was, what is and what never will be ]