How do we define Indie music? Its a tricky task. After all, if you say that it is music produced by independant record labels, you will find that this is true of Britney Spears and the Backstreet Boys. These aren't artists that usually fall under the title of indie.
Fumbling, you could also say that perhaps its music with guitars, drums, etc etc. But then, this is also true of country and western singers, folk-rockers and a variety of other genres of music. Truth is, there is no one solid definition of the term indie. But ultimately, at the end of the day, when you say indie, most people tend to understand what you are referring to. "Indie rock" in the UK is much different than "indie rock" in the USA. And, actually, in the UK, it's just "indie" - no rock. That'd be the sort of stuff that in the UK is easy to recognise - Stone Roses, Pulp, Boo Radleys, etc. At least, I think that typifies it. The 1960s influenced pop music of all shades, aware of punk rock, but not really taking too many pointers from it. From a UK (in my case a Madchester) perspective, US "indie rock" was typified by the big 3 - Sebadoh, Pavement, and Superchunk. Sebadoh represented the lo-fi aesthetic (enthusiasm outweighing technical proficiency), Pavement was the quirkier, art- damaged sector (self-referential, musically diverse), and Superchunk was the punky representative (guitars, guitars, and loud drums). Of course, there are offshoots, and these 3 poles often intersect (for instance, Pavement once was very lo-fi; Superchunk covered Sebadoh & the Chills & Magnetic Fields).
"indie rock" has become a catch-all term for any music that's slipping & sliding underneath the major media outlet radar - hence, John McEntire (drummer for Tortoise) can be called an "indie rocker" and it works. Slint, the Magnetic Fields, Fugazi, Rachels - indie rock, one and all. The US definition is all-encompassing (and maddeningly vague) while the UK definition tends to be detrimentally exclusive.
"indie nites" often draw lots of stick. No real reflection actually on the music itself, Indie club nights are often dodgy!, bands beware!- and indie radio stations too for that matter - Most indie listeners do like a load of other stuff - which is how it should be. They're eclectic people but indie is where their tastes intersect, and there's an unfortunate habit of pandering to that rather than exploring the other stuff.
In the UK now (2002), it has two meanings. On the wider stage it means Coldplay, Starsailor etc. The stuff which gets into the charts and has guitars and is broadly based on a songwriting/real music ethos. I think of this stuff, pace I think Big Black, as 'commercial alternative'. Then you have 'indie' in the US sense - indie pop, mostly, i.e. stuff with a 'pop sensibility' (usually meaning catchy and a bit wimpy) on independent labels. This stuff, oddly, is hardly ever covered by the music press, Belle And Sebastian aside, but its what the London scene seems to run on and when "indie" is used to talk about our club then that's the "indie" that is meant. The UK indie scene has a distanced but reverential attitude towards the US, I think - records are listened to and studied quite closely but it's very selective, and the rocky, post-hardcore end of stuff is not generally well understood (At The Drive In are classed as a nu- metal band here). It all just demonstrates that pigeon holes cannot and shouldn't always be rigorously applied, don't let it limit personal musical scope! |
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