What is Indie Rock?
I had recently received a comment on one of my posts explaining to me that I was using the term indie rock incorrectly. Well, that made me wonder. I could very well be using it wrong. The only time I had ever heard the term used was to explain the type of music a band played. I know that indie rock stands for “independent rock”, but I assumed it was also for a type of music bands played. So of course I had to do some research to really figure out what indie rock was. To my surprise, I was both wrong and right. Here is was the site Wikipedia has to say about indie rock:
“Indie rock is a genre of alternative rock that primarily exists in the independent underground music scene. The term is sometimes used interchangeably with underground music as a whole, though more specifically implies that the music meets the criterion of being rock, as opposed to indie pop or other possible match-ups. These criteria vary from an emphasis on rock instrumentation (electric guitars, bass guitar, live drums, and vocals) to more abstract (and debatable) rockist constructions of authenticity. It is however not uncommon to see a variety of instruments that are rarely used in other rock genres, such as the violin.
“Indie rock” is shorthand for “independent rock”, which stems from the fact the artists are generally signed to independent record labels, rather than major record labels. They may also be on no label at all. It is not strictly a genre of music (although the term is often used to reference the sound of specific bands such as Pavement and the bands they have influenced), but is often used as an umbrella term covering a wide range of artists and styles, connected by some degree of allegiance to the values of underground culture, and (usually) describable as rock music. Genres or subgenres often associated with indie rock include lo-fi, post-rock, garage punk, emo, sadcore, C86, twee pop, and math rock, to list but a few; other related (and sometimes overlapping) categories include shoegazing and indie pop.
Typically, indie artists place a premium on maintaining complete control of their music and careers, releasing albums on their independent record labels (sometimes their own) and relying on touring, word-of-mouth, and airplay on independent or college radio stations for promotion. Some of its more popular artists, however, may end up moving to major labels, though often on favorable terms won by their prior independent success.”