What is exactly indie music? Is it a genre? A style of music? I am so confused because right now there are a lot of so-called Indie bands which are either into this retro-pop, this 60s revival sound, or this sort of electronica, or even this faux folk, that I am not sure they can be called a new genre.
Or does indie mean produced independently, so not by a big record company? But a lot of indie bands end up signing with big labels, does it mean they are not indie anymore? R.E.M. could have been considered as indie when they started, but nobody would really call them like this anymore. What about Arcade Fire? Not so indie anymore either.
Does indie mean more original, outside the mainstream stuff? More underground? It was the case for punk bands in California, bands with the DIY ethics, but Black Flag is not really the name that comes to mind when you evoke indie music, although they totally correspond to this definition. So indie could be an attitude rather than a genre, just like punk, more an ethic than a sound, that would explain why there are so many sub-divisions like indie folk, indie rock, indie electronica, indie punk? It goes on and on,…
But I was reading an interview of Paul Simon on Stereogum the other day, and as they were talking about Graceland and its influence, Simon said ‘You know, the work I was doing on this record and the recording technique … it wouldn’t feel dissonant in an indie band.[…] Or in an indie band’s set. It has that quality to it. So did the stuff from my first solo album. It had a very indie feel to it, you know just minimal and unusual instruments for the time.’ This means he was referencing indie as a style of music, and we are back to the beginning!
Indie bands should be on indie labels, but what can we say about bands which are on these supposedly indie labels (Fat Possum Records, ANTI-, Epitaph,…) when we know that these labels are in fact affiliated with big ones (for example Epitaph is on the official list of RIAA members).
You can go further, 90% of the commercials are using indie songs these days, and the Black Keys have helped selling more cars than all the car dealers in the San Fernando valley . What does it say about the anti-big-labels-anti-corporations indie attitude?
Nothing is underground anymore, every band has access to the internet and can become mainstream in a flash,… Indie is such a broad term, it has no meaning anymore, it’s a dead term, we should get rid of it.