What exactly is indie music?
1732421#0
Independent music (often referred to as indie music or indie) is music produced independently from commercial record labels or their subsidiaries, a process that may include an autonomous, do-it-yourself approach to recording and publishing. The term "indie" is sometimes used to describe a genre (such as indie rock and indie pop), and as a genre term, "indie" may include music that is not independently produced, and many independent music artists do not fall into a single, defined musical style or genre and create self-published music that can be categorized into diverse genres.
Independent labels have a long history of promoting developments in popular music, stretching back to the post-war period in the United States, with labels such as Sun Records, King Records, and Stax.
Independent music
6054705#18
The Blizzards are a self-described pop band and although critics often refer to them as very bad examples of indie-pop, lead singer Niall Breslin, said that "I don't think Indie exists any more. I just think Indie is gone. Everyone who gets played on daytime radio is a pop band. Indie was around for Oasis. Indie was around for Blur. There's none of them bands left." When writing their second album, lead singer Niall Breslin said "We were told by a few people that the first album didn't reflect the energy of the live shows, so that's what we were aiming for this time around,". After the album's completion he stated "We couldn't be happier with the end result – it's exactly what we were aiming for."
The Blizzards
995557#3
Simon Reynolds has said that "what we now know as indie music was invented in Scotland," with reference to the emergence of Postcard Records in 1979. However, some have posited that concept of indie music did not crystallise until the late 1980s and early 1990s. American indie pop band Beat Happening's 1985 eponymous debut album was also influential in the development of the indie pop sound, particularly in North America. In the early 1990s, English indie pop influenced and branched off to a variety of styles. The US, which did not have as much of a scene in the 1980s, had many indie pop enthusiasts by the mid 1990s. Most of the modern notion of indie music stems from "NME"s 1986 compilation "C86", which collects many guitar bands who were inspired by the early psychedelic sounds of 1960s garage rock.
Indie pop
5339354#5
Their MySpace page describes their music as Indie/Classical/Emotronic. This is a pretty accurate description of their music, especially considering their instrumentation. A majority of their instruments (vibes, glockenspiel, organ, violin, viola) are primarily used in classical music, and in some instances jazz. These instruments interact in conjunction with the other “non-classical" instruments (drums, pedal steel, guitar, bass). What makes their sound unique is the application of the instruments, not necessarily the instrumentation itself. While using vibes and a glock is unique for an indie band, what makes it interesting is that some of their songs sound like something out of a feature film. Aucoin had a musical education (i.e. he had either conservatory tutoring or maybe even post-secondary, classical training) and he uses it in an effective way, not just in writing but also in orchestrating. In their song "Warning Against Judging", the opening minute is played on glock, organ and a little bit of a guitar - if you were to replace it with strings it would be something from an orchestral movie score. After the first minute of the song drums and bass come in, as well as violin and trumpet. It still keeps the feeling of a movie score, something that has been thought out by someone knowledgeable in orchestration.
The Hylozoists
40409711#2
By contrast, Daniel Bromfield of the Daily Emerald criticized both the album and the band itself as lacking originality, declaring that they were the point where the phrase "indie" was "another meaningless marketing word like "all natural"". He said, "This is "indie pop" at its most anonymous, a mishmash of the tricks that made their stylistic predecessors click with audiences." While he admitted that "the formula the band works under can be done right and has been by quite a few bands", he remarked that "Echosmith possesses exactly zero qualities that elevate them above the rest of the pack" and that their lyrics were subpar, saying that most of the songs incorporated overused imagery, while some "are just plain awful." He notes that "Cool Kids" would have been the best track of the album were it not for "its cringe-worthy chorus of "I wish that I could be like the cool kids/Because all the cool kids seem to fit in.", saying that the line was "terribly ironic" because "Echosmith has already fit in. But the cool kids are the ones that came before them, and Echosmith merely follow in their wake, trying to look and talk and think exactly like them. They only fit in because it’s what everyone else in their social current does."
Talking Dreams
171080#65
Though the major record companies dominate the American music industry, an independent music industry ("indie music") does exist. Most indie record labels have limited, if any, retail distribution outside a small region. Artists sometimes record for an indie label and gain enough acclaim to be signed to a major label; others choose to remain at an indie label for their entire careers. Indie music may be in styles generally similar to mainstream music, but is often inaccessible, unusual, or otherwise unappealing to many people. Indie musicians often release some or all of their songs over the Internet for fans and others to download and listen. In addition to recording artists of many kinds, there are numerous fields of professional musicianship in the United States, many of whom rarely record, including community orchestras, wedding singers and bands, lounge singers, and nightclub DJs. The American Federation of Musicians is the largest American labor union for professional musicians. However, only 15% of the Federation's members have steady music employment.
Music of the United States
143486#14
The term "indie rock" became associated with the bands and genres that remained dedicated to their independent status. Even grunge bands, following their break with success, began to create more independent sounding music, further blurring the lines. Ryan Moore has argued that in the wake of the appropriation of alternative rock by the corporate music industry that what became known as indie rock increasingly turned to the past to produce forms of "retro" rock that drew on garage rock, rockabilly, blues, country and swing.
Indie rock
143486#1
Sometimes used interchangeably with "guitar pop rock", in the mid-1980s, the term "indie" (or "indie pop") began to be used to describe the music produced on punk and post-punk labels. Some prominent indie rock record labels were founded during the 1980s. During the 1990s, grunge bands broke into the mainstream, and the term "alternative" lost its original counter-cultural meaning. The term "indie rock" became associated with the bands and genres that remained dedicated to their independent status. By the end of the 1990s, indie rock developed several subgenres and related styles, including lo-fi, noise pop, emo, slowcore, post-rock, and math rock. In the 2000s, changes in the music industry and in music technology enabled a new wave of indie rock bands to achieve mainstream success.
Indie rock
995557#0
Indie pop (also typeset as indie-pop or indiepop) is a music genre and subculture that combines guitar pop with DIY ethic in opposition to the style and tone of mainstream pop music. It originated from British post-punk in the late 1970s and subsequently generated a thriving fanzine, label, and club and gig circuit. Compared to its counterpart, indie rock, the genre is more melodic, less abrasive, and relatively angst-free. In later years, the definition of "indie pop" has bifurcated to also mean bands from unrelated DIY scenes/movements with pop leanings. Subgenres include chamber pop and twee pop.
Indie pop
11689101#0
Indie folk is a music genre that arose in the 1990s among musicians from indie rock scenes influenced by folk music. Indie folk hybridizes the acoustic guitar melodies of traditional folk music with contemporary instrumentation. The genre has its earliest origins in 1990s folk artists who displayed alternative rock influences in their music, such as Ani DiFranco and Dan Bern, and acoustic artists such as Elliott Smith and Will Oldham. In the following decade, labels such as Saddle Creek, Barsuk, Ramseur, and Sub Pop helped to provide support to indie folk. Artists of note include the Decemberists, Fleet Foxes, the Cave Singers, Loch Lomond, Bon Iver, Or, The Whale, Great Lake Swimmers, and Blind Pilot.
Indie folk