indie rock question

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by definition what is indie rock?

― emily esquilin, Friday, 20 June 2003 13:48 (twenty-two years ago)

anything that makes you feel superior to those drones who like top 40.

― Horace Mann (Horace Mann), Friday, 20 June 2003 13:51 (twenty-two years ago)

Fremme Neppa Vennette.

― kate (kate), Friday, 20 June 2003 13:51 (twenty-two years ago)

rock music released on an independant label? i dunno what happens when indie rock bands go major label though. i guess they just end up soundin like grand funk railroad

― Bob Shaw (Bob Shaw), Friday, 20 June 2003 13:52 (twenty-two years ago)

i guess they just end up soundin like grand funk railroad

We all can dream, we all can dream.

― scott m (mcd), Friday, 20 June 2003 13:54 (twenty-two years ago)

There are two types of Indies Rock, East and West. Both are thrilling in their own ways.

― Horace Mann (Horace Mann), Friday, 20 June 2003 13:55 (twenty-two years ago)

yeah, that east/west thing was terrible. seeing all those bands flashing their gangsigns on 120 minutes...

― Kingfish (Kingfish), Friday, 20 June 2003 14:02 (twenty-two years ago)

If indie rock had anything to do with being released on an independent label, then Ani DiFranco is the indiest mufugga around.

― nickalicious (nickalicious), Friday, 20 June 2003 14:04 (twenty-two years ago)

No way, cuz she has distribution. The most indie mufas are like elementary school kids who sing over their favourite songs into their computers and then burn it to CD-R and give it to me.

― Horace Mann (Horace Mann), Friday, 20 June 2003 14:07 (twenty-two years ago)

hurrah for horace's indie kids!!

― mark s (mark s), Friday, 20 June 2003 14:10 (twenty-two years ago)

Primarily gtr/bs/drums songs played with a disdain toward/avoidance of professionalism and rock "moves." Incorporates elements of noise, punk rock, minimalism and pop. Usually recorded with less than full fidelity for budgetary and/or aesthetic reasons.

Seriously, someone had to take a shot at this...

― Baked Bean Teeth (Baked Bean Teeth), Friday, 20 June 2003 14:14 (twenty-two years ago)

The last time we tackled this, didn't it hit, like, 400 posts or something?

(Not being facetious, really...)

― kate (kate), Friday, 20 June 2003 14:17 (twenty-two years ago)

Nabisco and Chuck Eddy to thread!

― jaymc (jaymc), Friday, 20 June 2003 14:18 (twenty-two years ago)

originally- bands that released albums on non-major labels.

now- definitely an aesthetic. For example: Modest Mouse is on Capitol, but are still often referred to as "indie" rock.

― Will (will), Friday, 20 June 2003 14:21 (twenty-two years ago)

indie rock is defined by terrible haircuts. in particular i am referring to the "new wave mullet", long at the back, a little bit like flock of seagulls at the front, and of course the "lazy tintin" which is more of an overgrown side parting sort of thing.

― Bob Shaw (Bob Shaw), Friday, 20 June 2003 14:22 (twenty-two years ago)

ooops. MM on Epic.

― Will (will), Friday, 20 June 2003 14:39 (twenty-two years ago)

indy rock

― ddd (ddd), Friday, 20 June 2003 14:54 (twenty-two years ago)

its called alternative now though, isn't it?

― gaz (gaz), Friday, 20 June 2003 14:57 (twenty-two years ago)

Wow I'm 13 again!

― Andrew Thames (Andrew Thames), Friday, 20 June 2003 14:58 (twenty-two years ago)

I think "indie" is short for "indecent?"

― Horace Mann (Horace Mann), Friday, 20 June 2003 14:58 (twenty-two years ago)

THE CUTTING EDGE OF ROCK!!

― Jon Williams (ex machina), Friday, 20 June 2003 14:59 (twenty-two years ago)

or maybe Indiana (the state, not Jones, he was pre-rock)

― Horace Mann (Horace Mann), Friday, 20 June 2003 15:00 (twenty-two years ago)

They invented rock in 1982?

― kate (kate), Friday, 20 June 2003 15:02 (twenty-two years ago)

Real Indie:

http://www.abc.net.au/science/slab/crichton/img/indy.jpg

― Dom Passantino (Dom Passantino), Friday, 20 June 2003 15:03 (twenty-two years ago)

Raiders of the Lost Ark hit the screens in 1981.

― Horace Mann (Horace Mann), Friday, 20 June 2003 15:05 (twenty-two years ago)

Indybandslike Clones and the Temple of Cool

― nickalicious (nickalicious), Friday, 20 June 2003 15:07 (twenty-two years ago)

There's also indie wrestling, of course:

http://www.rfvideo.com/ProductImages/newlogoshirt2.jpg

― Dom Passantino (Dom Passantino), Friday, 20 June 2003 15:11 (twenty-two years ago)

I hereby nominate nickalicious for a staff writer job at Mad Magazine. Or at least Cracked.

― Horace Mann (Horace Mann), Friday, 20 June 2003 15:11 (twenty-two years ago)

*shoots self*

― electric sound of jim (electricsound), Friday, 20 June 2003 15:15 (twenty-two years ago)

I'd guess a full third of my ILM posts have been on "what is indie" threads, past and present. Sometimes I like to try for esoteric ways of capturing it, like when I said it was all about prizing effort or when I said it was all about continually stylizing guitar-pop in different ways. Sometimes I don't care at all. But this, to me, has begun to seem like the simplest way of getting at what people mean when they say the word:

Independent rock = rock music created mostly independently; this includes metal bands, bar bands, and early Hanson, which is good, because it allows you to say some weirdo untypical band just made "the best independent rock record of the year."

Indie rock = commonly understood to vaguely refer to the umbrella of particular styles of independent rock around which a particular "indie" following coalesced and around which it now revolves. Not totally useful as a musical term, because that umbrella of styles is large and constantly in question. Doesn't always matter if the bands are independent or not or whether what they play "really" has to do with another genre: the point's more that they're situated within and related to the network of ideas going around this particular listening group. Of course, this listening group has, over the past decade, been listening to a lot more than rock, which is why I think there's more use in the following --

Indie = the whole network of fan-base and values and ideas involved here. You can complain that this is a sort of extra-musical distinction, but so what: the idea of "chart-pop" is, too, and yet it serves us just fine for talking about different fan groups and different ways of thinking about the music itself. The argument that was put to Chuck on another thread: bands like Rachel's and the Postal Service play music that's better off described as what it is, not just as "indie" -- but in neither case can you really specify how the band's work without making reference to the idea of "indie," the kids that are primarily interested in it, the audience it works within and is a part of. Similarly, when loads of people who stood within this system of ideas started making IDM, it'd have been silly to say that IDM just changed; no, what happened was that a particular group with particular values and a certain shared history -- a group that can be vaguely termed "indie" -- started getting into the stuff.

Which takes us a little off from the original question, but you know we're going there anyway. "Independent rock" strikes me as a good technical term to refer to just that; the diminuitive "indie" strikes me as a good way of talking about something that evolved out of it. This also handily bridges the US/UK divide in usage of "indie," because in the UK it's just a slightly different set of values and ideas in that listening group.

― nabisco (nabisco), Friday, 20 June 2003 15:18 (twenty-two years ago)

In other words, "indie" strikes me as a useful term for describing why Superchunk shares fans with Neu, in the same way that "pop" is useful for decribing why Shania Twain shares fans with Nelly.

― nabisco (nabisco), Friday, 20 June 2003 15:20 (twenty-two years ago)

Okay, I take it back. I nominate Nabisco for the Mad job.

― Horace Mann (Horace Mann), Friday, 20 June 2003 15:21 (twenty-two years ago)

<indie>I liked Superchunk and Neu back in 1989</indie>

― gygax! (gygax!), Friday, 20 June 2003 15:23 (twenty-two years ago)

Nabisco I kiss you.

― jaymc (jaymc), Friday, 20 June 2003 15:24 (twenty-two years ago)

and finally coming to DVD this year, assuming Spielberg doesn't fuck it up.

...which he will, probably. See the South Park ep:

http://mediaservice.photoisland.com/auction/Jun/20036202433595760306057.jpg

Son, we are simply passing through history. This... is imPROVED history....Do as you will.

― Kingfish (Kingfish), Friday, 20 June 2003 15:30 (twenty-two years ago)

I AM INDIE ROCK

― Felcher (Felcher), Friday, 20 June 2003 15:42 (twenty-two years ago)

erm, Felcher -- the correct title is "Help Me, I'm an Indie Rock" ;-)

― t\'\'t (t\'\'t), Friday, 20 June 2003 22:59 (twenty-two years ago)

currently, indie rock seems to have been diluted to wilco.

― Bob Shaw (Bob Shaw), Friday, 20 June 2003 23:18 (twenty-two years ago)

if by 'currently' you mean two years ago

― James Blount (James Blount), Friday, 20 June 2003 23:24 (twenty-two years ago)

i thought 'indie' was short for 'independently wealthy'?

― Aaron A., Friday, 20 June 2003 23:31 (twenty-two years ago)

ding ding ding!

― James Blount (James Blount), Friday, 20 June 2003 23:37 (twenty-two years ago)

Anything that still sounds like Husker Du?

― N. (nickdastoor), Saturday, 21 June 2003 00:18 (twenty-two years ago)

a business model, not a sound.

― Mike Taylor (mjt), Saturday, 21 June 2003 22:41 (twenty-two years ago)

and mike taylor wins with the actual answer.

― jack cole (jackcole), Saturday, 21 June 2003 23:02 (twenty-two years ago)

Mike's description is definitely spot on. Nabisco's was very good as well.

― David Allen, Saturday, 21 June 2003 23:35 (twenty-two years ago)

indy rock

― di smith (lucylurex), Sunday, 22 June 2003 00:27 (twenty-two years ago)

one year passes...

Age: 13-34
76% are between 16-28 years old
Gender: 52% male
Network Crossover: 22%
Impressions: 250 million
Average Page Views: 3-5
Average HHI: $65K
College Grad: 65%
PC Owners: 89%

http://www.indieclick.com/

― It's Not a Cookie - It's a Creamed Corn Newton!, Thursday, 17 February 2005 17:29 (twenty years ago)

Indie Click Dot Com

― It's Not a Cookie - It's a Creamed Corn Newton!, Thursday, 17 February 2005 17:31 (twenty years ago)

hipster music.

― AaronK (AaronK), Thursday, 17 February 2005 22:45 (twenty years ago)

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