Brief Indie Rock overview

Brief Indie Rock overview 

The term indie rock, which comes from "independent," describes the small and relatively low-budget labels on which it is released and the do-it-yourself attitude of the bands and artists involved. Indie rock is a genre of alternative rock that originated in the United Kingdom in the 1980s. Indie rock was extremely diverse, with sub genres that include indie pop, jangle pop, and lo-fi, among others.  In the 2000s, as a result of changes in the music industry and the growing importance of the Internet, a number of indie rock acts began to enjoy commercial success, leading to questions about its meaningfulness as a term.

In the mid-1980s, the term "indie" began to be used to describe the music produced on punk and post-punk labels. During the 1990s, Grunge bands broke into the mainstream, and the term "alternative" lost its original counter-cultural meaning. The term "indie rock" became associated with the bands and genres that remained dedicated to their independent status.  By the end of the 1990s indie rock developed a number of sub genres and related styles.

Indie rock became popular because the DIY beliefs surrounding it, it appealed largely to teenagers. The idea behind the genre is to bring the artists and the listeners closer than ever before. Instead of producer and consumer. The “open-mic” mindset appealed to everyone, everyone could be a part of the community as the indie sound was more “real” than pop, more intimate. Pop artists had access to the top of the line equipment, which often gave the music a crisp, clear sound. In contrast, indie artists, particularly grunge and hardcore musicians, sometimes played with high distortion on the electric guitar and/or recorded the whole track in one take, purposefully.