Indie Rock

Indie rock is a term commonly used for rock music that is produced by small, independant record labels or by artists themselves. The idea of rock music being made independant from major labels began to gain recognition in the UK and in the United States in around the 1980s. It tends to be thougth of as it's own genre of music but it is the terms used to describe its production and distribution, "Independent music".

Indie rock artists release albums on independent record labels (sometimes owned by themselves) and rely on touring through word-of-mouth and independent radio stations, and more recently through internet promotion, using websites such as MySpace, Facebook and Twitter where thousands of users intereact and it can gain them a lot of recognition. A lot of indie artists switch to major labels mid-career dependant on their success. This makes it difficult to distinguish indie music with mainstream music and can cause huge debate amongst fans. Some bands have always been associated with major labels but may be referred to as 'indie rock bands' because of the way their music sounds.

There is a variety of genres that overlap and are associated with 'Indie rock'. This includes:

indie pop, post-punk revival, dance-punk, indie folk, indietronica, etc.



The beginning of indie rock:

The roots are often refered back to "The Velvet Underground" debut album, released in 1967. The Beach boys 1966 album "Pet Sounds" is also commonly thought of as a starting point, same with the Kinks.


The 1980's:

In the UK, indie charts have been used since the early 1980s. Some examples of very known British indie rock bands from the 1980s were:

- The Smiths

- The Stone Roses

- Happy Mondays

- The Cure



These bands music heavily influenced the 1990's 'Britpop' movement. In the US, the term 'indie rock' was associated with distortion and heavy sounds such as Sonic Youth.



Record Labels:

The following record labels were founded in the 80's and are very renowned for being indie rock record labels:

- Washington DC's Dischord Records (1980)

- Seattles Sub Pop Records (1986)

- Chicago's Touch and Go Records (founded in 1979, released music in 1980's)


1990s:

In the 1990s there were major changes in the alternative rock scene. Grunge bands such as Nirvana and Pearl Jam broke into the mainstream, achieving chart success commercially. Punk revival bands such as Greenday also gained popularity and were grouped under the alternative label. The meaning of alternative changed and now refered to new music achieving mainstream success. Indie rock then became associated with bands that still remained underground in the music scene.

Current indie bands:
Indie rock is now hugely thought of as a genre by many people (including myself before researching into it.) It is well liked by many people and some artists that would be included in this type of music would be:

- The Maccabee's
- Vampire Weekend
- The Pigeon Detectives
- The Kooks
- Florence and the Machine
- Foals
- The Drums
- Bombay Bicycle Club
- Bloc Party
- Arctic Monkeys