How indie ate itself

1977: The Buzzcocks release their Spiral Scratch EP on their DIY label, New Hormones. Pop historians will refer to it as the first indie record

1986: NME and Rough Trade compile and release C86, the cassette (featuring, among others, Primal Scream, The Soup Dragons and Half Man Half Biscuit) that defines the indie genre

1987: The Smiths leave independent label Rough Trade after four albums and sign a more lucrative deal with EMI, then split acrimoniously before they record a note

1990: The Stone Roses, led by singer Ian Brown stage a Woodstock for the baggys generation – a huge gig at Spike Island in Widnes. Among the 27,000 fans is a young Noel Gallagher

1992: Alan McGee sells half of Creation Records to Sony for £2.5m. Later, Nude is sold to Sony, Factory to London Records, Go!Discs to Phonogram and Food to EMI

1993: Indie fans Steve Lamacq and Jo Whiley take over Radio One's high-profile Evening Session slot and make it their own. Blur release their second album, Modern Life is Rubbish. According to John Harris, the author of The Last Party: Britpop, Blair and the Demise of British Rock, this is the first true Britpop album. Alan McGee goes to Glasgow venue King Tut's Wah Wah Hut to see his label's act 18 Wheeler play, and discovers a little band called Oasis

1995: Blur and Oasis release singles in the same week ("Country House" and "Roll With It") in what NME bills as a "British heavyweight championship". Blur win the immediate battle to reach number one, but Oasis win the war: their album, (What's the Story) Morning Glory?, sells 18m copies worldwide

1997: Oasis's third album, Be Here Now, is bloated and ugly. Blur by Blur sounds American. Britpop dies a belated death

2001: New York hipsters The Strokes release Is This It. Everyone forgets about Britain

2002: The Libertines release their debut, Up The Bracket. Shambling guitars become chic again

2004: Snow Patrol's Final Straw and Keane's Hopes and Fears top the album charts. Indie reaches a low point

2006: Arctic Monkeys' Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not becomes the fastest-selling debut album in chart history. The major labels snap up every 17-year-old guikookstar player in the land

2008: Scouting For Girls' debut album reaches Number One. Indie eats itself

independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/features/…" href="independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/features/…">Does The World Need Another Indie Band? ((Independent Article))

I thought it was kinda interesting :P

complaining about shitty music then praising the arctic monkeys does not compute

Yeah, sorry - I agree with the article, but weren't you the one who liked The Stokes, Lenny?

To be honest, I don't know why we even have an indie forum.  It's an abused term.  It's more of an excuse than a genre now.  "We're INDIE.  We SUCK because we have to preserve our ARTISTIC INTEGRITY."

I mean, there are a lot of guys out there making a lot of good music that most people would call indie.  But the label in general is annoying.  It's always alternative or indie now.  What the fuck is wrong with just calling it generic general rock?

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Yep. Still.

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Last modified on 2009-02-21 11:11:05 by T_D_Phoenix

tl;dr: indie was never good

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People demand freedom of speech as a compensation for the freedom of thought which they seldom use.

I think the article has a point, but like, it isn't about to stop me from listening to bands like the Fratellis (or the Strokes) just because they're not as amazingly awesome (in my opinion) as the Doors. Everything in moderation, innit.

Nearly everything, anyway. I do have a line drawn, but it isn't to do with the perceived quality of anyone's work so much as that their songs get on my nerves. 

lol yea man artic monkeys and snow patrol? comon man listen to some good shit

Wonder what indie means anyway, doesn't mean a whole lot now, does it? Indie = Independent?

The word got used in wrong contexts nowadays, the "self-upkeeping" financial status of an artist/band has turned into its own genre.

If you've heard of it, trust me, it's lost any indie-factor involved, which will be heard within their next album. I hate the term myself, but what are you supposed to call it? Just continually move forward in the search for new band with that magic, unaltered touch, and never buy the album after the one that makes them big.

I'm just nit-picking, but...

"One style" Indie is not a style. It should be used to describe someone without a major record label backing them, or the philosophy of music-making that means doing what you want.

"Generic indie" means nothing. ^See above.

"Smooth-chinned strummers": Samuel Beam from Iron and Wine has a great beard.

"Indie is the 30-year-old GENRE that gave us The Smiths, The Stone Roses, Blur and Arctic Monkeys. But in that period it has also produced Ocean Colour Scene, Menswear and Joe Lean and The Jing Jang Jong." Not genre. Also, rap gave us Vanilla Ice >.>

"The idea was that on independent labels you would find more experimental or adventurous music, people exploring esoteric and non-commercial directions, making sounds too abrasive or weird to be on daytime radio." I DARE you to listen to Wavves. If Wavves DOESN'T fit this description or just straight up epitomizes it, I don't know what does

"[The members] completely interchangeable" I wonder what would happen if you put Liz Harris of Grouper and made her work with Wavves...

"By 1986 'indie' pretty much equated with a refusal of the pop[ular] present" Meh...

"'Indie' meant jangly guitar groups." 80's teeny bopper says "They all sound the same wah!!!"

"It just so happened that most of the bands on indie labels played jangly guitars" It just so happens that SOME "indie" sucks.

"Oasis was on the Creation label, whose founder Alan McGee had sold 49 per cent of the company to Sony for £2.5m in 1992" When will he decide between indie sucking, being a philosophy, or meaning not affiliated with giant company? Also, indie spirit doesn't care if you're signed to a giant label. Producers may kill it, though.

"These days the term 'indie' is little more than a generic sonic description for any band that plays guitars and probably wears skinny ties, skinny jeans, and skinny cardigans." I wonder who popularized it?

"[NME's] journalists were once so passionate about the integrity of the GENRE that they threatened a schism over the inclusion of too much hip-hop on their pages." What's wrong with indie rap and hip-hop? Immortal Technique, please!

"[All the stuff about filling up the radio with crap]" Like I said before, rap gave us Vanilla Ice, hard rock gave us "Bat Country" (shudders) by Avenged Sevenfold (cries), boy band gave us boy bands, singer/songwriter gave us Vanessa Carlton, HELL even political activism gave us American Idiot! The fact is that EVERY genre has bad stuff, and indie if used to name a genre is no exception. Indie if used as a genre will always have more crap than anything because it ISN'T a genre. Tim Walker here is trying to encompass an industry that is totally disparate and just crazy. The indie philisophy is not dead. It is alive in many ACTUAL musical genres. Listen to Wavves (shitgaze) and tell me they're normal. Listen to Beirut (Balkan/Eastern European/French/Mexican stuff) and tell me they're cliche. Listen to Neon Indian (synth pop) and tell me you hear that kind of stuff all the time on the radio. Listen to Immortal Technique (rap) and tell me he's not just straight up good. Listen to Broken Social Scene (barouque pop, indie rock, art rock, etc.) and tell me they aren't completely awesome!!! Indie is not a genre. It is not a 20 year old in skinny jeans and a The Smiths shirt. I would subscribe to using the term to point out a band on a small label. The term used to describe a philosophy is acceptable, but whatever you do, do not say "I don't listen to indie stuff", because that means not listening to a LOT of different styles.

I finished my homework like two hours ago...

I do believe I may have just fallen in love with TheAmazingSaint.

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You'll Never, Never Know...

Yawn. More bagging on "indie".

isn't indie not necessarily a genre of music, but just a band that is signed to an independent label? that's what i've always thought.

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People demand freedom of speech as a compensation for the freedom of thought which they seldom use.

when are we going to stop putting music into different groups?? if the songs is good, honest, true and you like it, why should you care for what genre it is?

when i was younger i thought pop was shit, because i only associated it with spice girl, sugarbabes etc.. but now i understand how hard it really is to put an artist into the right group... i have to make up a new genre for all the artist i'm listening to because their so different from each other....

(btw.. sorry for my bad english :P)

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...

Perhaps when all artists sounds the same, and all songs are indistinguishable from each other.

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SongMeanings Slut

^^ clever.

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Wendy O Williams attempted suicide by hammering a knife into her chest - That's Punk Rock!

I thought it was just common sense.  (but I'll take clever)

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SongMeanings Slut

college rock?

Genre classification merely helps us understand directions, limitations, influences etc. It doesn't have to be treated as a negative thing.

Eh... some people actually like organization.

Erm... What about all of the "Indie" stuff that never made the charts? By this I'm not just referring to "indie rock" (like AT, SST, Blast First, Merge, etc), but all of the great self-released or small-time budget/duplication/distribution recordings since the invention of recording?

"Indie", meaning just independent, will always remain so and is immune to "eating itself" because it is a spirit more than anything..

Nah...I'd have to disagree with the viewpoint touted by the article you attached.  First off, the bands they listed as "Indie Landfill" aren't Indie at all.  They're bands who are on major labels designed to sell a product to a target demographic-people who like to think of themselves as Indie.  What's the remedy?  Dig.  Don't just expect good music to come screaming at you.  And why are we concerned with what's happening on the pop charts?  I thought we were supposed to be an alternative and not give a flying fuck about those sort of things.  Plus, the article only looks at Britain (granted it's from a British newspaper) when Indie is an international thing.  What about America?  We have plenty o' bands.  My hometown has a non-"Indie Landfill" scene.  What about France?  What about Australia?  New Zealand?  Japan? Germany?  Italy?  Spain?  Etc.  Plus, if you really think that Indie's dying, here's a novel idea: make it a call it arms!  Start making good music yourself.  Advertise, preach, and spout your opinions.  Find like-minded individuals and form groups and committees and organizations.  We've done it in the 70s, the 80s, and the 90s and we can surely do it again.

Anyway, I love everyone, regardless of their opinions.  Y'all have a very nice day.

Sorry, I meant, "a call to arms" not, "a call it arms"!

Anyway, once again, Y'all have a very nice day.

its rasist to say that indians eat themslves i mean they don even eat plp you guys aren't every smart haha :) :) :) :) )::):):):):):

I'll give this guy three days before an ip ban.

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"Here comes him picking her up like a viking on a rapequest."