For a second, it is still, and everyone feels like they have a firm grasp on it. Then it regains life, squirms and drops from not-so-adhesive hands. This happens over and over, until it flops back into a murky lake, lost again.
Based on its name, indie rock (a term coined in the early ‘90s) is music under an “independent” record label, but it has evolved into something more complex than that. After gaining popularity, some indie bands have made the jump into mainstream music (i.e. the Kings of Leon) and others have signed with big-time labels, like TV on the Radio’s signing with Interscope Records.
So if indie bands can break all the rules, than what exactly is indie?
As David Fricke of Rolling Stones magazine put it, “Indie rock is not a genre or a sound—it is a mission, a commitment to go your own way, the hard way.”
A couple of decades ago, indie was the type of stuff most people groaned at hearing, seemingly hapless bands just trying to be different.
These days, indie music like that of Owl City, a one-man indie artist, flows into the hearts of thousands and can have a song reach number one on iTunes and number one on the Billboard charts.
Not only has t che music gained reputability, but an entire sub-culture and stereotype has been generated around indie (skinny pants, flannel, Urban Outfitters, etc.).
The transition from being anti-trend to possibly becoming the trend itself is a result of numerous factors.
Undoubtedly, technology has played a prominent role in circulating all kinds of music. In the past, artists had to be backed up by big labels just to be heard, but now it takes just a few clicks and the whole world can listen to a band.
Websites, like thesixtyone.com, post songs from unknown artists and allow listeners to determine what is good and bad.
Mr. Santiago Torres, the bassist for indie band The Sweeps, who got its first album Midnight at the Box on iTunes last June, spoke about this concept.
“You’re not getting help from big sponsors. Indie rock is musicians and artists that are doing things on their own,” Mr. Torres said.
Another thing going indie’s way is its variety—from electronic to grunge to experimental. When people get tired of the types of genres where every song sounds the same, they naturally turn to indie because they know there has to be some band that can play something fresh.
Torres and his band believe in the variety of their music so much that they do not even categorize it.
“We don’t really want to say that we’re a specific type of music because we don’t want to limit ourselves in the future,” he said.
There is also an added incentive to knowing a band that no one else has ever heard.
‘Dude, I went to the Brand New concert last week. It was awesome.’
‘How can a concert be brand new?’
Simply knowing that a band like Brand New even exists brings people a certain modern-music-awareness to be proud of in today’s world.
Then, when some of these bands, like The Killers, hit the big-time, original fans who heard them in mini-clubs can smile and argue, ‘Hey, I liked them before they were popular.’
As for the future of indie rock, it will be just as unpredictable as indie’s rise has been.
Nitsuh Abebe, a writer for Pitchfork.com, a leading website for indie music followers, wrote about what is to come: “Yet another big shuffle of who stands where under indie’s umbrella, and where indie’s umbrella stands in the first place [is coming].”
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