"Indie rock" genre of music
Indie rock (or alternative rock) is a genre of alternative rock which originally started in the UK & US in the 80’s . It’s style is very diverse, and comes in many varieties and sub-genres. For example indie pop (Indie pop was inspired by punk's DIY ethic and generated a thriving fanzine (fan magazine), label, and club and gig circuit. Indie pop differs from indie rock to the extent that it is more melodic, less abrasive – grindy & metalic, and relatively angst-free), jangle pop (Mid-1980s jangle pop was a non-mainstream "pop-based format" with "some folk-rock overtones", with psychedelic influences & uses raw and immediate sounding melodic guitar-bands) , C86 (a guitar-based musical genre characterized by jangling guitars and melodic power pop song structures) and lo-fi (a sound recording which contains technical flaws such as distortion, hum, or background noise, or limited frequency response).
When grunge (a subgenre of alternative rock which started in the US in the 80’s, it was inspired by hardcore punk, heavy metal, and indie rock, and is characterised by heavily distorted electric guitars + contrasting song dynamics, and apathetic (showing of feeling no interest) or angst-filled -violent / passionate lyrics) and punk revival ( more mainstream 90’s punk) bands in the US & Britpop bands in the UK (The movement developed as a reaction against various musical & cultural trends in the late 80’s & early 90’s. Britpop groups brought British alternative rock into the mainstream market and created a forum for a large British cultural movement called 'Cool Britannia' . Britpop groups were defined by a focus on bands rather than solo artists (using drums/bass/guitar/vocals) and this style majorly broke into the mainstream music industry (in the 90’s it was used to identify those acts that still retained an “outsider” & “underground” (less testosterone-driven) perspective.
In the 2000s, as a result of changes in the music industry and the growing importance of the Internet and sights such as youtube which allowed them to freely market and brand their groups on a much larger scale that ever before (and more people find out about their style & beliefs) a number of indie rock acts began to emerge more publicly and enjoy their share of commercial success. Indie rock came from the term "independent" & is basically a musical wave which is made up of a relatively small and quite low-budget group of labels, who’s artists & bands have a generally have a do-it-yourself attitude.
Even though most of their distribution deals are often made with major companies these labels and the bands they manage still try and attempt to maintain some of their autonomy, self government & individuality. Meaning they are usually left to freely explore sounds, emotions & subjects which are probably of limited appeal to a large the mass market audience. Indie rock is influenced by styles such as extremely diverse, including punk, psychedelia (influenced by psychedelic culture and attempts to replicate and enhance the mind-altering experiences of psychedelic drugs.), rock (a popular music genre which centres around the electric guitar, usually ‘rock’ artists are in groups and include the instrumental use of bass guitar & drums as well as of course vocals) and country (It takes its roots from southeastern American folk music, Western cowboy, and often consists of ballads and dance tunes with generally simple forms and harmonies accompanied by mostly string instruments such as banjoes, electric and acoustic guitars, fiddles, and harmonicas.) Indie rock has been identified as a reaction against the "macho" culture & came into it’s own after the major success of Nirvana.
It has been described as
"too sensitive and melancholy; too soft and delicate; too dreamy and hypnotic; too personal and intimately revealing in its lyrics; too low-fidelity and low-budget in its production; too angular in its melodies and riffs; too raw, skronky and abrasive, wrapped in too many sheets of Sonic Youth/Dinosaur Jr./Pixies/Jesus & Mary Chain-style guitar noise; too oblique and fractured in its song structures; too influenced by experimental or otherwise unpopular musical styles." (by all music an online music guide website)
History of Indie Rock from the 1980's-2000's
1980's
began in the1980's with College rock and noise rock produced on post-punk labels (a genre which emerged from punk rock but is more complex and experimental). The indie rock scene dominated collage radio stations & playlists (popular bands of this genre were R.E.M from the US & The Smiths from the UK). "Indie rock" was very abrasive, used distortion techniques and heavy sounds, very guitar based. They rejected the popular 'synpop' genre which was ruling at the time (a genre of popular music that first became prominent in the 1980s, where synthesizeris where the dominant musical instrument, a synthesiser either imitates other instruments or generate new tones and can be controlled by a variety of different input devices such as keyboards, music sequencers and instrument controllers). A number of prominent indie rock record labels were founded during this period (EG: Washington, DC's Dischord Records, Seattle's Sub Pop Records, New York City's Matador Records and Merge Records) & a number of popular indie rock bands emerged (EG:
The Housemartins,The La's ,10,000 Maniacs, the dB's, Sonic Youth, Swans, Big Black , Butthole Surfers, Pixies, Hüsker Dü, Minutemen, Meat Puppets, Dinosaur Jr., and The Replacements).
The Indie pop scene followed suit :
New Order, The Mary Chain, Bloody Valentine, Slowdive ,Ride (created a loud "wash of sound" that obscured vocals and melodies with long, droning riffs, distortion, and feedback).The other major movement at the end of the 1980s was the drug-fuelled Madchesterscene - Happy Mondays, The Stone Roses (mixed acid housedance rhythms, Northern soul and funk with melodic guitar pop).
1990's
Grunge bands like for example : Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Soundgarden and Alice in Chains broke into the mainstream and achieved commercial chart success and had a much more widespread exposure that previous bands of this genre. In the UK bands like Blur and Oasis became popular on a big scale and abandoned the regional, small-scale and political elements of the 1980s indie scene.As a result of these changes "alternative" sort of began to loose its true counter-culture, anti-establishment meanings & origins & began to refer to a new and more commercially light form of music that was getting a share of mainstream success. The term "indie rock" became associated with the bands and genres that remained dedicated to their independent status. In addition a number of sub-genres and related styles evolved for example
lo-fi, noise pop, emo, sadcore, post-rock, space rock and math rock.
2000's
The growth of new digital technology & internet usage as a tool for music promotion created a new wave of indie rock bands achieving an even greater mainstream success. The naughty's brought with it a commercial breakthrough and the widespread and meant that "indie" ceased to be a meaningful term despite the fact that there is no other way to refer to the genre. In some ways it actually flipped the power coin and American artists began to be influenced by British indie music and the Internet, which made British music publications and online music websites such available easily in the states.
Furthermore in the early 2000s a brand new group of bands who performed stripped-down (back-to-basics) versions of guitar rock also came into the mainstream. The bands came from across the globe, and cited diverse influences, from traditional blues to New Wave to grunge, They adopted different styles of dress, and didn't have the same sense of unity as a genre. Commercial success came from : The Strokes, The White Stripes, The Vines, The Black Keys, The Killers, Kings of Leon, The Fratellis, Placebo, Razorlight, Kaiser Cheifs, The Kooks, Arctic Monkeys, The Datsuns, D4 (UK,US,AUSTRALIA,NEW ZEALAND alike). (some became much more prominent thanks to initial commercial success because of the availability of the Internet and social networking sites.)
The subgenre "Emo" also broke into mainstream culture with a popular appeal amongst teenagers, with bands like Dashboard Confessional's,Fall Out Boy, My Chemical Romance, Paramore and Panic at the Disco emerging. The term expanded and was used in association with fashion, hairstyles and any music that expressed emotion. The subgenre "indie electronic" also grew (it actually began in the early 90's) with the development digital technology. They mixied a variety of indie sounds with electronic music and largely produced on small independent labels - forming a scene visually similar to earlier rave.
Generic Features of Indie Music Videos :
Illustration, stop motion animation, found footage (substantial parts of the film are presented as discovered film or video recordings), home video, striking effects repeated,second hand & re-purposed objects and costumes (used with irony and/or sincerity), simple camera work (that finds beautiful angles and light by looking closely), shots of the instrumentals, exterior locations, lack of editing . The low budget style also forces a strong need for the "indie" artists to depend upon on friends & other "indie" makers, which can actually make the video more iconic (and more artistic - creative minds) + bizarre + diverse + perverse and arty.
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