Music is more than just words, it's something you feel, lyrics carefully combined with a rhythm. The creation, execution, essentialness, and even the meaning of music differ as per culture and social setting. Music can be partitioned into types (e.g., country music, pop, RnB, jazz) and classes can be additionally separated into subgenres (e.g., country blues and pop country are two of the many country subgenres), in spite of the fact that the isolating lines and connections between music types are frequently unobtrusive, in some cases open to individual understanding, and once in a while questionable. Indie Music is the shortened word for Independent music. Basically a sub-culture of music which follows the idea that 'WE WON'T SELL OUT"
EMERGENCE OF INDIE MUSIC
Indie music emerged as a by-product of the punk movement around the 1970’s.The foundations of indie music are based on this very ideology of creative freedom whereas Punk-related belief systems generally revolve around individual opportunity and anarchistic perspectives. Regular punk perspectives incorporate individual freedom, a Do-It-Yourself ethic, non-congruity, hostile to community, hostile to corporatism, hostile to government, direct activity and not "selling out".
Often type-casted as a sub-genre such as “indie-pop” or ‘indie-rock”, it is characterised by a sense of autonomy and degree of independence from commercial pop music and mainstream culture. Indie music's inception is ascribed with the release of the Spiral Scratch EP, by Buzzcocks in 1977. This album was the first of its kind to have been released without the help of a supporting record company.
EVOLUTION OF INDIE MUSIC
Indie music started gaining traction during the late 80’s; both British and American indie albums were amongst the highlights of the era(Sonic Youth’s Daydream Nation, Pixies’ Doolittle and Dinosaur Jr’s Bug to name a few). Manchester’s indie-dance icons, massive tours at international stadiums by iconic bands like The Cure, Nirvana, Pearl Jam and others spearheaded indie music’s journey into what was known as it’s golden era not only commercially but also in a creative sense.
During the 1950s and 1960s, major record companies such as Decca in the United Kingdom dominated the markets, while independent labels struggled to survive. Several British producers and artists launched independent labels, a majority of which either failed as commercial ventures, or were bought out by major labels.
INDIE ROCK
Indie rock is a subgenre of alternative rock music which originated in the United Kingdom and North America in the early 1980s. Initially a form of independent music, it was based on small labels with low budgets which produced lo-fi rock records. ... Today, indie rock has been able to find some commercial success. Independent labels such as Sun Records, King Records, and Stax have a long history of promoting developments in popular music, which can be traced back to the post-war period in the United States.
In recent times ,indie rock has been able to find some commercial success. Popular indie rock acts and artists include R.E.M, Pavement, Regina Spektor and Superchunk, to name a few.
Additionally, indie rock has fused to create several new genres and subgenres. Indietronica, or indie electronic music, is a genre which fuses elements of indie rock, pop and electronic music, and often makes usage of synthesizers and drum machines. Alternative dance music, or indie dance, is also a genre which fuses elements of electronic dance music, alternative rock, indie rock and New Wave, usually incorporating elements of the rock genres and using them in a dance-based context.
INDIE POP
Indie pop (also typeset as indie-pop or indie pop) is a music genre and subculture that combines guitar pop with DIY ethic in opposition to the style and tone of mainstream pop music. It originated from British post-punk in the late 1970s. Compared to its counterpart, indie rock, the genre is more melodic, less abrasive, and relatively angst-free. In later years, the definition of indie pop has bifurcated to also mean bands from unrelated DIY scenes/movements with pop leanings. Subgenres include chamber pop and twee pop.
INDIE MUSIC IN INDIA
Indie music commenced at the end of the 90s and at the dawn of the new millennium, where legends like Pritam Chakraborty were changing the sound of Indian music. By mid-2005, the Indian music industry had already seen the emergence of experimental music and videos. However, that didn’t result in significant popularity. The indie music genre slowly picked up its influence over musical platforms like YouTube in the late 2000s. Its immediate influence wasn’t seen, but after 2009 many youths caught up with this music industry.
One of the most successful artists to come out of the indie music scenario in recent years is Darshan Raval. Darshan’s recent release is “Dil Mera Blast” has crossed 27 million views on YouTube. The numbers are indicative of the growing influence of independent music. A few other notable artists in India are Nucleya, Shirley Setia, The F16s, and Prateek Kuhad.
This shows a promising future for Indie music in India.
INTERESTING FACTS ABOUT INDIE MUSIC
•Indie" music charts have existed in the United Kingdom since the early 80s.
•Britain has categories plus an independent music section.
•The sounds that dominated the charts, during the time of their conception in the early 80s, were guitar-based alternative music from the C86 movement, the Sarah Records' twee pop sound, and other indie pop artists. So, the sounds of the first indie artists were mistakenly understood to be the sound of indie.
In addition to music coverage and festival culture, the rise of streaming services has made it to where nearly everything is relatively accessible and presented on the same platform. As a result, the concepts of “indie” and “the underground” have changed dramatically in the past decade. Indie rock is no longer the romanticised underground once lovingly chronicled in Our Band Could Be Your Life, but one piece of many in a vast sea of interconnected scenes and genres. SRKB Studios is here to take that one step further. We want to take it to the next step and make music even more accessible than it already is. So why don't you either join our community, collaborate or stay tuned to see the emerging artists?
Article By Kelly Lobo
