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What is Indie Music?
The practice of strumming slightly distorted guitar to a 4/4, bass, bass tom, drumbeat while wailing words ripped straight out of the rhyming dictionary. Exponents of this art are often seen trying to look like a replica of 1970's John lennon or, for the more alternative; cardigans, painted nails and eyeliner while banging on about being 'working class'.
Fortunately, for budding musicians, indie music is so easy to reproduce that most 'indie fans' are in a band within two months of picking up a guitar, or drums, playing various covers by their indie heros.
The main exponents of this art improve little from these meagre beginnings - eventually writing songs of their own, with the requisite 4/4 drumbeat and strummed chords. Those who make it big will be touted by the NME or the Guardian as being 'the next big thing' while getting rave reviews for their university tours of britain. Examples of these can be seen everywhere in Britain from Oasis to Radiohead.
Indie fans will further try to convince people that indie music is original from the introduction of a piano or (ghasp)a clarinet into the formulaic peice or, in the other direction, playing some power chords and sounding like Nirvana. Unfortunately this does little to relieve the boredom in indie music as the same hash is re-hashed again and again.
A: Who's your favourite band?
B: The Toes, they're the next big thing according to the NME. I saw them in the Camden Monarch.
A: Oh i've heard of them. My band does a few covers of their songs. Still don't think they'll beat Radiohead for songs that mean so much to me though.
B: I know what you mean; radiohead redefined music as we think of it.
A: you're right there, mate. Oh i learned a new chord - 'B'
B: Show me.....
Ad infinitum
Indie Music - video
Indie Music - what is it?
True indies listen too arctic monkeys, the wombats, the kooks, the smiths, the 1975, declan mckenna, gerry cinnamon, tyler the creator, the verve, oasis, foals, kaiser chiefs, two door cinema club, the vaccines, courteneers, the libertines.
Indies are typically wearing adidas, listening to music and smoking.
However, some think musicians such as clairo and joji are indie - However this is not true they are for people who want to be “different” but love pop music
“That girl so listens to indie music you can tell with her arctic monkeys top and adidas bucket hat”
What does "Indie Music" mean?
Indie from independent
Came into usage in the late 1970s early 1980s to describe records distributed independently of the major record companies. Some of the larger independent record labels such as Rough Trade acted as distributors and at one point independent labels collaborated to distribute records through the Cartel.
Although in recent years the term has become associated with guitar bands it was not originally so. For example records by Kylie Minogue appeared in the indie charts because her record label used an independent distributor.
By the late 1980s the independent music scene ceased to have any real meaning as major record companies set up fake indie labels and some of the larger independent record labels sold out to majors.
Nowadays the term is associated with a style of guitar music and has to some extent become a pejorative term. For example in the phrase "landfill indie", expressing the lack of originality in much of the genre.
C.f. Landfill indie music
Indie Music - what does it mean?
indie music isnt a difinite style of music, but most indie bands are influenced by each other causing a similar sound. the sound is melodic, the instruments are simple but well textured. usually includes a simple but origanal guitar riff, another guitar riff layered to complement it, bass doing the same, simple drum beat (but fitting the song well) either a keyboard or violin or something to bring out the underlying melody, and soft vocals, usually well harmonized. the lyrics are powerfully emotional (but not whiney). they spark emotion but they dont talk about how there lives suck (very tastefull)
as a scene: people who love indie love it for its music alone. they try to keep it small because they dont want it to be a huge scene, they want to keep it about improving the sound, thats why they know a million bands you've never heard it, they just want to find new things to improve the music, but with anything good, dumb high school kids will ruin it. and most definitions on this site are of those igorant little kids, not indie fans
examples of indie music: death cab for cutie, pinback, modest mouse, decemberists, the arcade fire
Indie Music - meaning
Indie music means Independent Music. If a person makes music which is not non-mainstream and is kinda weird but beautiful, it's called indie music.
I have heard a lot of people mistake Indie for 'Modified Pop'. Let me tell you, it's NOT.
Indie music is beautiful. The harmony can touch your soul whithin minutes. The lyrics makes us feel happy, nostalgic and restless and relaxed at the same time.
It doesn't involve whiney words, emo screaming, and whisper-singing. But it's not always like that. True indie music takes you to another place, somewhere only you can go.
But people do look at things differently. You're not me and I am not you. So true bliss can come in different forms, alright?
But generally, this genre is wonderful. One have to find the royal music on their own. And that's why some Indie Kids hesitate to recommend songs. They are not afraid of others judging their tastes, but they are afraid of people judging their favourite artists.
You see, if you listen to this genre, something will change in you. You will become an elitist, someone who has a better taste and experience than everyone. But you will also feel happy about your life.
And that's the definition of Indie Kids! Not all of us have the Wavy Hair, not all of us have a weird taste in style, not all of us like colourful days.
But it's like a coincidence. Ig.
So yeah you can be indie if you want lol. This is just a genre which can be weird but flamboyant!
Uncle Jeff: Hey, isn't that the kid who said he liked that indie band called One Direction??
Kid 1: Yeah!
Indie kid: One direction is pop, you arses! Indie is non-mainstream! It's not boy-bandish! Indie music is beautiful
Indie Music - definition
Pretty bad music.
Every indie band sounds so much alike that all the musicians are interchangeable.
Indie musicians aren't very good at playing their instruments and probably learned all that they know from The Beatles.
Werewolf by Cocorosie
"Wow, that song Werewolf really speaks to me, I love her voice. I really think that song is what indie music is truly about"
"Really? Well then you must literally know nothing about music as it is nails on chalkboard. But whatever, we all have different opinions. I just think that a line should be drawn somwhere..."
Indie Music - slang
A band that sucks so bad they're not good enough to get a label.
Indie Bands will often think they're unique and breaking the mould when the only unique thing about them is they suck in a totally different way each time and the only thing they break are the ears of the people unfortunate enough to hear it.
Indie Bands often think they can shred a guitar like Eddie Van Halen just because they've seen a ShitKnot video.
It should also be noted that they think they're the first bunch of nimrods to use social networkng sites to plug their insult to music.
Indie Music euphamisms:
Indie Band: we're Indie because we hate how music is commercial, and we don't want to sell out, because we don't want tons of money.
What They Really Mean: We suck so hard, no-one would give us a label in a million years, we'd sell out if anyone actually liked us, and we only say we don't care about money because we couldn't sell our tripe to a bunch of deaf idiots.
Indie Band: We're unique, we're like nothing ever before.
What They Really Mean: Like every other crap band, we whore our music out to 11 year old emo kids on social-networking sites and we look so cool, despite not even being able to spell HTML, let alone code it.
Indie Band: We have tons of fans, and everyone likes us.
What They Really Mean: We send out random invites on social networking sites, and even though we have 500,000 friends, no-one actuallys knows who we are or likes our stuff, and our gigs are more vacant than George Bush's head.
Indie Band: We're the next big thing, and we're gonna' make it big.
What They Really Mean; we're a carbon clone of every other social-networking site band, and will fade into obscurity and we're so stupid that we'd be lucky to get a job at McDonalds cleaning the toilets with our tongue.
Indie Music
In it's true definition, indie music is any music that is produced by unsigned or non major label artists.
Today indie music most commonly refers to a genre of music that is heavily influenced by electronic, folk, and rock music. A good and what is probably the best known artist for this genre is Beck.
However the vast majority of indie music today is shit. The main components to an indie band are:
-A singer and a guitarist or a singer/guitarist
-A bass player, preferably a white male or an Asian female
-A guy on a synthesizer
-A drummer who only does 4/4 beats (I got that from another urban dictionary post)
-Some weird, obscure, or just plain obnoxious instrument
In the many horrible "indie music" bands, the musicians barely know how to play their instruments. The guitarist probably only knows the basic kumbayah chords (A, G, E, C, etc.) and power chords.
The synthesizer player will often times only alternate between the same 3 chords throughout the entire song and tune the synth oscillators to a setting that s/he finds the most unique- no matter how horrible it sounds.
And lastly, whatever weird instrument that they have, they will absolutely 100% not know how to play it.
Next are the lyrics which are dreadful. Anyone can write typical indie music lyrics in five seconds. They are usually about a girl with brunnette hair and her surrounding environment.
e.g.
The brown hair covers your eyes
And I see the ocean behind those eyes
You're like a flower in a vintage store
Unique like me- no establishment whore (its also important in indie music to talk down on companies, establishment, etc.)
****
and then there is usually about 15 seconds of the singer going
Nah, nah, nah, nah, yea, yea, yea, etc.
All of this is 100% true. Go listen to indie music and don't tell me that at least 80-90 percent of what I've said isn't in the music.
joe-"hey man I just found this acoustic guitar and an old drumset in my basement. Let's start a band"
will-"shouldn't we learn to play the instruments first? I mean we don't want to embarrass ourselves"
joe-"Nah it's all good, we'll just say we're playing indie music"
will-"Oh yeah! because it's the effort and our message of brown haired girls and anti-government feelings that count!"
Indie Music
Generally music with a more obscure sound. Indie music consists of musicians who aren't in it for the big label, but to make good music, or music they like. Genres include folk, rap, electronica, acoustic, etc.
Anybody who considers Modest Mouse to be an indie band is incredibly ignorant.
The genre should not be mistaken with "indie kids". (Who the hell labels themself as an indie kid, huh?)
Indie music doesn't ONLY consist of acoustic guitar, whiny voices, and shouldn't be mistaken with teenagers who wear black rimmed glasses, put the Juno album on repeat, wear converse, and hang out at Starbucks.
Try some Gregory and the Hawk, he Dreams of Sleep, Robbie Snell, Wesley Bunch.
Indie Music
Original meaning: Any music that produced and released by independent bands or independent record labels, and consumed by adolescent and adults under 35 yro. Most of such music are produced with a low to moderate budget.
Modern meaning: bands with <100k likes on facebook and not on any major labels. music they produced and released is considered "indie". But some of these bands are signed to subsidiaries of major labels, ie. Interscope, subpop...etc. In that sense, they shouldn't be considered "indie", rather major label artists with an "indie" aesthetic preference for marketing purposes.
arcade fire, mumford and sons, modest mouse, lumineers, mgmt,///indie music///