April 9, 2008...15:55
Death To Indie Rock
Being part of a band that has been plunked into the “indie rock” category, I often struggle with the genre and what, exactly, it means. What is indie? I believe it is a dead identity: like how the title “alternative” was borne from grunge in the 90’s, and has since come to define bands like Nickelback. It’s outgrown its meaning: Death Cab is indie, but on a major label. So WTF?
The term “indie” essentially used to mean “not major label” and oftentimes “not on any label.” But now the new “indie” had been commodified and major label bands can be indie rock. And to me “indie” still means angular guitars, you know, like Pavement. Let’s see what the my go-to knower of all things says:
“Indie rock artists place a premium on maintaining complete control of their music and careers, releasing albums on independent record labels (sometimes their own) and relying on touring, word-of-mouth, and airplay on independent or college radio stations for promotion. Some end up moving to major labels, often on favorable terms won by their prior independent success.” - from the Indie Rock wiki.
OK, well that kind of explains it but doesn’t fully satisfy me, because it doesn’t address the indie rock sound or aesthetic. I mean, I don’t even think I could easily define it, but I know it’s out there, and everybody is trying to do it. And then this morning I read this: The Question Mark: Is Feist Still Indie?. This appears in the Canadian broadsheet ‘National Post’ who are notoriously conservative, but are trying hilariously to be ‘with it.’ Anyhow, the article is flimsy at best but addresses the issue: “What is indie?” It seems that we can’t agree: it’s an important label for some people, so important that they won’t listen to it if it’s not indie (even if it’s totally amazing); and yet for others it’s entirely meaningless.
As frustrating/obsolete as retail CD shopping has become, at least we can rely on a shop’s inability to define any sub-genre beyond “POP/ROCK,” which I am just fine with. You really, really cannot please everyone. I mean, is being indie that important to you?
So as The Dears put the finishing touches on our orchestral sci-fi noir-funk opus, we prepare ourselves mentally for the inevitable: being lazily lumped into the indie category. This is me, being curmudgeonly about the whole thing: *grumble*. We always say that making an album is like raising a child: you give it everything you can and then release it into the world, as if sending it off to its first day of school, and you can hope for the best, pray it makes good friends, but really, it’s beyond our control. We’ll see what the fates allow.
7 Comments
April 9, 2008 at 16:01
The term has become warped and now no longer means what it once did.
You could argue the same has occurred, but in an opposite fashion, with pop music.
Meaning ‘Popular music’… yet not all music that is popular is considered pop music.
April 9, 2008 at 19:40
My favourite definition of indie is ‘popular music for unpopular people’. It’s so true.
Really love the blog, it’s a great read. Looking forward to the new album immensely (and hopefully another Australian tour…
April 9, 2008 at 21:11
Funny, the kid analogy applies to a lot of things, being a stage manager for a theatre troupe at McGill I feel the same way about our show (which incidentally starts tomorrow)
April 11, 2008 at 5:16
Malajube is Indie Rock
April 11, 2008 at 18:55
[...] indie, emo, etc…allez plutôt lire l’article de Natalia Yanchak de The Dears intitulé Death To Indie Rock) , s’écoeure de se faire bouder par toutes ces jolies filles [...]
April 16, 2008 at 7:57
I read this today:
“Earlier this year, [Blood Red Shoes] posted a MySpace blog, in which they said they don’t like being referred to as an indie band. Asked why by Gigwise, drummer Steven Ansell replied: “Because indie bands suck! I mean, indie, if it was what it was years ago then yeah, we’d be an indie band, but now, if you’re talking about the Pigeon Detectives, Wombats, The View, The Enemy, then that’s what we’re talking about, we’re not… We’d hate to be considered as on the same type of level as those bands”. - UnLimited/CMU
I mean, I’ve never heard of this “Blood Red Shoes” band before, but, yeah! I feel you!
April 20, 2008 at 17:24
It’s a vague term, always has been. I’d also point out that it’s been around far longer than ‘alternative’ - anything can be ‘alternative’ because everything is an ‘alternative’ to something.
When I say ‘indie’ though I’m not talking about a particular style, and I don’t mean signed or unsigned, big label, small or none.
To me whether an artist is ‘indie’ or independent is somewhat subjective but it’s about the artist (not their paycheque or who signs it) - it’s about whether they are creating something original, distinctive and true to the artists vision or whether it’s com-modified (a pre-packaged product with as much input from the marketing department as from the artists(s)).
So, by my definition you can be a wealthy, big label artists who plays sold out stadium shows (that I won’t go to) and still be Indie - it’s just hard to do.
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