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Author Topic: What is Indie?  (Read 27912 times)

eknox

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What is Indie?
« on: 06 Dec 2007, 00:11 »

I cannot work out what the term 'Indie' means. please enlighten me 
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Jackie Blue

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Re: What is Indie?
« Reply #1 on: 06 Dec 2007, 00:21 »

http://www.wikipedia.org

I sincerely hope you're trolling and not actually being this stupid.
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Johnny C

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Re: What is Indie?
« Reply #2 on: 06 Dec 2007, 00:26 »

Imagine getting teabagged repeatedly by people with more money and power than you will ever have.































This has nothing to do with indie, I just wanted to see if I could get you to imagine it.
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Tom

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Re: What is Indie?
« Reply #3 on: 06 Dec 2007, 00:27 »

Whoa, that's doosey.

Indie means a lot of things to a lot of different people, it's better to come to your own independent understanding of indie as the meaning of indie will change in accordance with the capricious nature of the masses. It is an umbrella term as well.
To start you on your quest I'll bombard you with facts and you can resolve the ambiguities independently.
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/indie
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=indie
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indie

You have no idea how hard it was to resist using multiple forms of dependent in this post.
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Vancroth

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Re: What is Indie?
« Reply #4 on: 06 Dec 2007, 00:35 »

I guess you could describe indie as the music that people, who may or may not self-identify as "indie kids/hipsters," listen to which can't easily be placed under some other ridiculous label.
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Spinless

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Re: What is Indie?
« Reply #5 on: 06 Dec 2007, 00:44 »

I think it has been over a year since we had the 'What is emo/indie' stickies at the top of the page.
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Ballard

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Re: What is Indie?
« Reply #6 on: 06 Dec 2007, 00:47 »

Wow, you guys, weak boarding.

I can't believe I'm saying this but n0t_r0bert_b0yle!! is winning here.
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Jackie Blue

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Re: What is Indie?
« Reply #7 on: 06 Dec 2007, 00:53 »

Wow, you guys, weak boarding.

What the deuce are you talking about?  This is fucking 2007.  Coming onto a message board and asking a nebulous question (as your second post ever) like "what is indie" is just retarded Nettiquite.  Google it, look it up on Wikipedia, whatever.  There is no reason for threads like this.

It's like coming onto a mathematics board and saying "hay guys what is pi?"

SRSLY.

Stop the madness.

Think of the children.
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Ballard

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Re: What is Indie?
« Reply #8 on: 06 Dec 2007, 01:03 »

Hey, the guy posted a question, sounding genuinely clueless, on a message board for a webcomic related to indie music. Which is read by a lot of people who don't know shit about indie music.

The Wikipedia article on indie rock is confusing and not entirely accurate.
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Jackie Blue

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Re: What is Indie?
« Reply #9 on: 06 Dec 2007, 01:11 »

My position stands: Strategic use of Google will provide any and every answer that any of us could give, and the thought that this board is populated by extremely knowledgable and reasonable people (aside from a very select few) is frankly laughable.
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Vancroth

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Re: What is Indie?
« Reply #10 on: 06 Dec 2007, 01:17 »

OK, then.  In addition, to checking wikipedia try searching the archives for the past threads on this subject.  Also, lurk around the music forums and you will eventually obtain an understanding for the elusive definition of indie.  I also recommend reading Our Band Could Be Your Life because it is awesome.
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Tom

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Re: What is Indie?
« Reply #11 on: 06 Dec 2007, 01:18 »

Seconded.
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Ballard

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Re: What is Indie?
« Reply #12 on: 06 Dec 2007, 01:19 »

My position stands: Strategic use of Google will provide any and every answer that any of us could give, and the thought that this board is populated by extremely knowledgable and reasonable people (aside from a very select few) is frankly laughable.


I would say that most of the regular posters are fairly knowlegeable and at times reasonable.
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eknox

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Re: What is Indie?
« Reply #13 on: 06 Dec 2007, 01:19 »

give me a break, i live in Tassie (google it) 

but seriously- sorry if my post offends, but its not a term that gets used by people i know, and i only have only really heard it on QC and occasionally on Triple j.

« Last Edit: 06 Dec 2007, 01:24 by eknox »
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a pack of wolves

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Re: What is Indie?
« Reply #14 on: 06 Dec 2007, 01:20 »

The wikipedia article on indie rock actually lists Dinosaur Jr as a hardcore band and I feel this is indicative of its overall quality. It actually manages to be worse than the wikipedia article on emo, and that's saying something.

I agree with Ballard, Google or lurking are not going to get you a good answer because there isn't one (not a fact that would be apparent from a search either). Basically, indie means independent, in other words not produced by a major corporation. Beyond that you will never get a good description. If it's basically rock music and isn't metal or punk and isn't very deliberately aimed at the top of the charts (even if it gets there) then people will call it indie. I wouldn't worry about it if I were you, just listen to Husker Du and have a nice cup of tea instead.
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eknox

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Re: What is Indie?
« Reply #15 on: 06 Dec 2007, 01:31 »

I would ask who  Hüsker Dü where but someone would slap me (and yes i  have looked it up on Wikipedia  :angel:
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Ballard

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Re: What is Indie?
« Reply #16 on: 06 Dec 2007, 01:33 »

Ok, that doesn't make sense. The Wikipedia article on Hüsker Dü is pretty informative.
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est

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Re: What is Indie?
« Reply #17 on: 06 Dec 2007, 01:35 »

give me a break, i live in Tassie

Oh man, you have my sympathy.

Think of the bands you hear on Triple J about a year before the commercial stations pick them up.  Think of the videos you pretty much only see on Rage and not the Saturday morning chart shows.  Think of the kind of stuff you'll find in little music stores and places like Fish and JB and not in Virgin Music, HMV and such.  Chances are that is what a lot of people regard as indie stuff.  That is not really a definite definition and I am sure a lot of people would disagree with me, but from what I've seen it really is pretty broad.
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Ballard

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Re: What is Indie?
« Reply #18 on: 06 Dec 2007, 01:37 »

Actually, Virgin has been trying far too hard lately to appeal to the indie audience. Every time I walk in there, Ted Leo and The New Pornographers are up front by the entrance for everyone to see.
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Tom

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Re: What is Indie?
« Reply #19 on: 06 Dec 2007, 01:46 »

give me a break, i live in Tassie (google it) 

forgotten corner of Australia. A heavy part of our 'Indie' culture(s) is based on over-simplifications from the US.
Don't worry, it's even more blurred for us than our distant neighbors from the North. If you're trying to get indie cred and finding parameters to fill with your faux-awesomeness, get over yourself and listen to stuff you like. But your probably not doing that cause that would be totally uncool, right?
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Spinless

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Re: What is Indie?
« Reply #20 on: 06 Dec 2007, 02:13 »

Well, the New Pornographers and Ted Leo have had several years of word of mouth, strong albums, positive critical responses and a rather huge world wide fanbase to help them get some recognition in a Virgin megastore.
The Arcade Fire accomplished more than this is less than a year with one album.
Modest Mouse have hit singles on the radio.

This may sound odd, but an indie act is able to touch a large fanbase and achieve widespread recognition. It's amazing, I know!
Although, in many cases, they're able to do this because they turn crap.
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Tom

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Re: What is Indie?
« Reply #21 on: 06 Dec 2007, 02:17 »

Sony BMG keeps screwing up Modest Mouse.
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Vancroth

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Re: What is Indie?
« Reply #22 on: 06 Dec 2007, 02:46 »

I don't think it's fair to put all the blame on Sony BMG.

Well, the New Pornographers and Ted Leo have had several years of word of mouth, strong albums, positive critical responses and a rather huge world wide fanbase to help them get some recognition in a Virgin megastore.

Indeed.  When it comes down to it, most stores could care less who makes the product as long as they turn a profit.
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Re: What is Indie?
« Reply #23 on: 06 Dec 2007, 02:51 »

I never got the 'indie is a genre of music' as if it's comparable to a genre like rap, or ambient, or blues.

Whenever someone claims they listen to the genre of indie music, I want to slap them. Indie isn't a particular sound. Indie just means the music was released under an independent music label. that's all.

There might be philosophies that are a part of being indie, but this doesn't make it a genre. More a life choice.

Am I completely wrong?
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Spinless

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Re: What is Indie?
« Reply #24 on: 06 Dec 2007, 03:22 »

These arguments were all we discussed in the summer of 06. This is making me feel rather nostalgic.
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Re: What is Indie?
« Reply #25 on: 06 Dec 2007, 05:09 »

The other problem with the umbrella term Indie (rather than the genuine term mentioned by Staedler and Tommy) is that about 90% of it, well known or not, pretty much just sounds like generic pop music or, in the worst cases, adult contemporary.
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Re: What is Indie?
« Reply #26 on: 06 Dec 2007, 06:08 »

I've always thought of adult contemporary as the more palatable side of (90s, in my mind) commercial pop music. Bands like Gin Blossoms, Better Than Ezra, Spin Doctors, Natalie Merchant. Maybe it's just nostalgia speaking, but what's so horrible there?
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Re: What is Indie?
« Reply #27 on: 06 Dec 2007, 06:41 »

Indie is not a genre, but Indie Pop is, amirite?

Seriously, genres are getting to be worthless words these days.
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Re: What is Indie?
« Reply #28 on: 06 Dec 2007, 08:03 »

Indie is everything on an independent label I think.
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yossarian07

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Re: What is Indie?
« Reply #29 on: 06 Dec 2007, 08:48 »

Indie is everything on an independent label I think.
Not so much these days. I think it's more about estabishing a fan base on an indie label. There are tons of bands that are considered indie that are on major labels right now, but only moved to a major label after they were already popular on an indie label. (The Decemberists, Death Cab, The Flaming Lips, Modest Mouse, etc.)
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Re: What is Indie?
« Reply #30 on: 06 Dec 2007, 09:10 »

Wow. I think we've just seen a discussion become a metaphor for itself.

No, wait...maybe I'm overthinking this.

But...could it be?
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muteKi

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Re: What is Indie?
« Reply #31 on: 06 Dec 2007, 09:42 »

I agree with Ballard, Google or lurking are not going to get you a good answer because there isn't one (not a fact that would be apparent from a search either). Basically, indie means independent, in other words not produced by a major corporation. Beyond that you will never get a good description. If it's basically rock music and isn't metal or punk and isn't very deliberately aimed at the top of the charts (even if it gets there) then people will call it indie. I wouldn't worry about it if I were you, just listen to Husker Du and have a nice cup of tea instead.

Indie and Alternative and such are horrible ways to define music in terms of a specific sound. An indie band probably is so because they don't want to sound like the pop music that is heavily controlled by record labels. Since these labels have become more and more interested in turning obscenely high profits, they generally try to sign and market bands that will do well, and thus market the rather bland pop music that a lot of people that come places like here tend to dislike. Now, back in, say, the 70s, the average label would be more willing to sign bands that were "weird"; one of my favorite alt/prog style bands had WB publishing a lot of its music at least on this side of the coast. Hence it's a term that's not been in use for very long, sort of like "underground" and such, which mean similar things, though underground was to my knowledge used most with punk musics.
Since indie thus involves a contrast against the less-experimental mainstream record labels, it's hard to really create as unified a definition of the sound as a more popular genre since there is a significant element of experimentation and innovation in sound, as compared to the less imaginative efforts that might come from more mainstream music. Hence indie involves rock instrumentations and even sometimes pop-based chords, melodies, and lyrics, but with a change in the role a specific instrument might play.

For example, Mellowdrone is considered indie through Wikipedia. One of their songs I am familiar with is Oh My. This song is not far off from a pop song in vese-chorus-verse-chorus-bridge-chorus, etc. construction, but a lot of the forefront instrumentation on that is more electronic rather than purely guitar-based, and the lyrics seem nonsensical compared to your average "I love you and I'm saying that I love you pretty explicitly, and rather than talk about how I wish I could fly over there like a shooting star or something, I'm going to be mainly concrete in how I explain my love to you and everyone else who is listening" song.

Alternately, a band like Future of the Left is probably more unusual and less palatable to listeners of pop music, since a lot of their music feels like strangely-mixed metal, with near-primal raging about pointing and summer activities and thumbs and pickled onions and Mark Foley, over a heavily distorted and mixed guitar that doesn't use the typical pan-to-center technique of most pop songs that doesn't always come into play -- some songs are near totally driven by a combination of drums and bass, also try Death from Above 1979's Pull Out as a similar style to this.

Yet one would consider both bands to be indie. As such it is that so nebulous a definition for indie exists, but one might think that involves either some sort of rebellious or mature sound as compared to the typical teenybopper pop that plays on top radio.
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Jackie Blue

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Re: What is Indie?
« Reply #32 on: 06 Dec 2007, 09:45 »

Sonic Youth have been on a major label for 17 years.

The defense rests, your honor.
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Re: What is Indie?
« Reply #33 on: 06 Dec 2007, 09:49 »

the thought that this board is populated by extremely knowledgable and reasonable people (aside from a very select few) is frankly laughable.

I knew MWhaling and you, sir, are no MWhaling.
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Re: What is Indie?
« Reply #34 on: 06 Dec 2007, 09:57 »

Indie is the noise a tree makes when it falls down in the forest with no one around to hear it.

Jackie Blue

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Re: What is Indie?
« Reply #35 on: 06 Dec 2007, 10:37 »

OK, seriously, I'm ending the serious part of this thread.  This covers pretty much everything right here:

From The Melancholy Rhino:

"There's two ways of discussing 'indie' - one generic/categoric/analytic, an attempt at objectivity, the other judgmental/personal/anecdotal, an application of attitude that subsumes both aesthetics and economics - and there's no obvious way of separating them out.

The generic bit is easily enough determined. It's generally agreed that indie starts with Nirvana - there was plenty of music around before 1991 that didn't fit into the mainstream and was put out on independent labels or white labels and had a cult following, but it was called underground in the 70's, post-punk in the 80's, and alternative thereafter, and it wasn't until ‘Never Mind’ went supernova that the word 'indie' started to be used by the mainstream media to tag something that had previously been ignored. Its usage differed subtly in the UK and the States, in that UK indie emerged as a reaction to the commodification of Britpop (Oasis - believe it or not - were seminal once) and has been personnified by a distinctively non-metropolitan (ie proudly detached from the London club scene) sound, like that of groups such as Super Furry Animals, Gorky's Zygotic Mynci, and Manic Street Preachers, from Wales, and Mogwai, Arab Strap, the Delgados, and Belle and Sebastian, from Glasgow, being less rock-centric, in general, than its US manifestation - 'indie rock' - which some say evolved out of the different styles of just three highly influential bands: Sebadoh (lo-fi aesthetic - big on enthusiasm, small on technical proficiency), Pavement (quirkier, art-damaged, self-referential, musically diverse), and Superchunk (punky - guitars, more guitars, and very loud drums).

But this is the sort of contentious lippy stuff that barstool musicologists will contentedly blab on about til the cows come home and still no-one will be any the wiser. Can Radiohead still be thought of as indie despite being signed to a major? Is Sigur Rós selling its soul to EMI, or are they just ensuring a vastly wider audience than ever they could have achieved via the resources available to Bad Taste or Fat Cat? Does this sort of thing matter except as a major source of procrastination at exam revision time?

In a broader, and more illuminating sense, the expression 'indie' became one of those abbreviations that tend to cluster around any significant moment of cultural change as flags of identification (as in hippy for hipster, or nazi for Nationalsozialistisch): it comes into that category of abbreviations that have acquired meaning independent (appropriately enough) of the original - like tv (telly), perm, nuke, hype, dis, and so on - and a surprising number of people don't know, when they're talking music, which are the majors that 'indie' is actually independent of. Of course you do. But hey, just for the record, let's remind ourselves that they are as follows (selected subsidiaries in brackets) in order of market dominance:

Universal Music Group (Geffen, Mercury, Island DefJam, Interscope, Decca, Polydor)
Sony BMG (Columbia, Epic, Work, Jive, Arista, RCA, Milan)
EMI Group (Capitol, Virgin, Mute, Parlophone, Heavenly)
AOL Time Warner (Warner Bros, Sire, Maverick, Atlantic, Elektra)

By default, these have come to represent the anti-Christ quads - formerly quintuplets - of the indie world, and I'd be prepared to risk a bet that the total purists out there also run Debian on Macs and regard Windows as the gateway to Hell. But you don't have to be an out and out anarcho-syndicalist to see that there's a shift of emphasis that runs from left to right as you trace your finger across the catalogues of Constellation or Fat Cat and on into those of EMI and SonyBMG - and that that shift reflects a substantively different way of evaluating an artist's worth. It's probably naïve to condemn the Universal management as being careless of anything but the bottom line, but, equally probably, it's true. It's hilarious the way the record industry refers to the human providers of the product - en masse - as 'artists', as if the mass-produced production-line pretty boys and girls who clog the airwaves with their arse-waggling bollocks might be spoken of in the same breath as - oh, where do you begin? Time was when artists were artists and musicians strummed their lutes and knew their place, then along came the Vinyl Fairy and waved her gold-dust wand and suddenly anyone with straight teeth, one or two pierced nipples and a recording contract is a Michelangelo and Michelangeletta. But it can't be repeated often enough: the music industry is precisely that - a phenomenally profitable global industry. The global music market was worth $32 billion in 2003, of which the European music market was worth $11.8 billion; total unit sales were 2.7 billion, and the four major record companies now control 74.7% of the world market (with Universal alone accounting for 23.5%) - 80.6% of the European market.

Those are the bald figures. The big question is: where does indie music fit into all this talk about total unit sales and profitability?

Listen to Don Wilkie and Ivan Ilavsky, co-founders of the Canadian label Constellation:

"This is our 'post-rock' -- a term that must be construed politically in equal measure to its referencing of some diffuse 'instrumental' or 'deconstructed' musical aesthetic. 'Indie rock' was never a genre and its bastardisation as an aesthetic category was one of countless elegant corporate-intellectual coups during the 1990s. Sadly, all too many hipper-than-now taste-makers were happily complicit, ready to replace 'indie' with 'post' and thus help extinguish any abiding concern about the economies that ground and contextualise rock music. So fuck post-rock, and the smooth untroubled consumption it enables. Independent rock as a utopic analogue for social organisation is our mandate."
(from the Constellation manifesto)

Likewise, Jon Whitney of Brainwashed advocates an uncompromisingly proactive position regarding the majors:

"Brainwashed.com and The Brain boycott Major Label music for many reasons.
1. There's so much exciting music happening from the enormous number of indie labels, our small volunteer staff doesn't want to waste our spare resources.
2. There's enough reviews, support and coverage from places like Rolling Stone or Spin or NME.
3. We don't agree with practices that include in-house publishing clauses, high-budget awards shows, radio station payola, million-dollar music video expenses, retailer price-fixing or conglomeration of smaller labels that result in deletion of catalogue and employees (ie: profit-minded as opposed to artistically-minded).
Due to this boycott we will actively ignore major product at all opportunities, since even bad publicity is still publicity. We also openly encourage every individual to spread the word. We also wish the media outlets ignore major label product, even try going for an issue being completely major-label free."

These two positions represent the more radical edge of an identifiable polity that comprises a major distinguishing feature of indie culture. It might not, except in a very few cases, be a particularly coherent or articulate or organised affair, but it's a polity nevertheless, of the sort that befriends few adherents to old-school political systems and values, whether they lean to the left or the right - a disorganised organisational system of anti-authoritarian, non-conformist, pro-individualist (occasionally nihilistic) self-expressive values, and one that by definition is open source. One cheap 'n' cheerful rule of thumb for testing an artist's indie credentials is to determine which side of the file-sharing 'debate' a particular candidate is on. This works for divas as well as for newbies - which elevates our dear Björk Gudmundsdóttir to veritable Indie Ice Queen and damns the pretend Lady Madge of Ashcombe as an avaricious mainstream madonna.

Indie is a tribe, however, not a nation, and quite a large, unruly tribe at that. It has its obvious leaders, shamans, and spokespersons (of which, this year, we've lost, in John Peel, one of the greatest and the best), its marks of recognition (that excruciatingly careless carefulness about dress codes at gigs), passwords (if you now type GY!BE rather than just plain GYBE without thinking you're truly cool), its annual gatherings (All Tomorrow's Parties being to indie what GOP is to Red Amerika), its myths, its rituals - all the paraphernalia, in other words, of a sub-culture verging on a religion. Typically, however - unlike the equivalent sub-cultures of C&W, say, or death metal, or grunge - it's a tribe linked by a very loose set of affiliations - consensus- rather than vote-driven - and somehow retaining its credibility as a genre despite the fact that no two people can ever seem to be able to agree what indie actually is, despite frequent, lengthy and impassioned threads on the subject in the music groups.

Whatever it is, one thing is quite clear: that the sites of its creative incubators have shifted continents. The rise and rise of indie has been located almost exclusively in the US and Canada and (particularly) the UK until quite recently, when world-class artists have begun to emerge on such European labels as Morr and Staubgold in Germany, Mosz in Austria, Gooom and Locust in France, and, further afield, Thule and Smekkleysa/Bad Taste in Iceland, Extreme, Sigma Editions, and Preservation in Australia, and, amidst a huge explosion of indie labels in Japan, a couple of personal faves: Plop and Childisc - the list is growing by the month. (Nothing yet comes to mind from either South America or the Indian or African sub-continents or the Middle East, which might well prove the grist to some future thesis that indie proceeds like a benign isotopic side-effect of the meltdown of those cultures in which nuclear families have exceeded the specs of their containment chambers - but really, that's so off-topic ... )

There's another sort of independence that needs to be mentioned, of course, and that's the freedom from playlist hell that the internet provides for new artists struggling to get a hearing. Clearly, less and less people are relying on TV and radio and music magazines, the traditional sources of information, for guidance towards new music, turning instead to trusted newsgroups, interactive sites like Audioscrobbler, and e-zines such as (*modest fanfare*) the melancholy rhino. If you're reading this it's because either you have an open curiosity about indie music, or because you've been here before and got a good tip or three and decided to come back for more. After all, what is the rhino if not independent - of everyone who might want to tweak a commercial advantage out of getting a good review here - precisely because of its editorial independence? The rhino serves indie through being indie.

And perhaps that's the point - that this amorphous mess of a genre that is also an amorphous mess of an attitude attracts a following based on a kind of potlatch economy, wherein the only currency that matters is the gift of musical ideas. No-one's going to be so dogmatic or naïve as to expect that, in the real world, no-one's entitled to make money out of this, but the tacit indie agreement, and the one thing that bottom-lines the whole indie ethos, is that the only true capital is the music, and that that, in a world which increasingly conspires to decree the opposite, is priceless."
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Johnny C

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Re: What is Indie?
« Reply #36 on: 06 Dec 2007, 10:47 »

Where was that post much further up the page? It was absolutely fantastic.
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Jackie Blue

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Re: What is Indie?
« Reply #37 on: 06 Dec 2007, 12:54 »

That's not what the article is actually saying, though.  It's simply saying that the success of Nirvana was when the TERM "indie" came into popular mainstream usage.
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Liz

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Re: What is Indie?
« Reply #38 on: 06 Dec 2007, 12:56 »

No it didn't. That's when it went pair-shaped.

Pear-shaped?
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Jackie Blue

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Re: What is Indie?
« Reply #39 on: 06 Dec 2007, 13:24 »

Sebadoh, "Gimme Indie Rock", circa 1991:

Started back in '83
Started seeing things a differently
And hardcore wasn't doin' it for me no more
Started smoking pot
Thought things sounded better slow
Much slower, heavier
Black magic melody to sink this poseur's soul

VU Stooges undeniably cool
Took a lesson from that drone rock school
Manipulate musicians hack righteous drool
Getting loose with the Pussy Galore
Cracking jokes like a Thurston Moore
Peddle hopping like a Dinosaur, J...

Rock and Roll genius, ride the middle of the road
Milk that sound, blow your load
Shoot it further than you ever said it go
Four stars in the Rolling Stone

Oooh sludge rock,
That's hard as harsh
Just gimme indie rock!
It's gone big
Come on indie rock
Just give me indie rock

Taking inspiration from Husker Du
It's a new generation
Of electric white boy blues
Come on indie rock
It's gone big
Come on indie rock
Just give me indie rock

Breaking down the barriers
Like Sonic Youth
They got what they wanted
Maybe I can get what I want too
Come on indie rock
It's gone big
Come on indie rock
Just give me indie rock

Time to knock
The hard rock on it's side
Time to knock
The shit right up a storm
Turn to amaze
With the indie sludge
Grunge!
Aaah!
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Liz

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Re: What is Indie?
« Reply #40 on: 06 Dec 2007, 13:40 »

No, no. Pair-shaped.

Shaped like a pair of balls.

Ah, I get it. Next time specifiy the type of pair in the sentence, please, to avoid confusion.
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MusicScribbles

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Re: What is Indie?
« Reply #41 on: 06 Dec 2007, 15:00 »

Ah, I can't believe that I missed the conception of a new "What is indie?" thread. I guess it's too late to do the getting raped by corporations bit? Did someone make that joke already?
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Ballard

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Re: What is Indie?
« Reply #42 on: 06 Dec 2007, 17:03 »

Well, the New Pornographers and Ted Leo have had several years of word of mouth, strong albums, positive critical responses and a rather huge world wide fanbase to help them get some recognition in a Virgin megastore.

Hence, trying too hard. Or not hard enough.
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Re: What is Indie?
« Reply #43 on: 06 Dec 2007, 17:30 »

Or not at all.
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Ballard

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Re: What is Indie?
« Reply #44 on: 06 Dec 2007, 18:54 »

Nah, their sales are dying since even people who buy music mostly buy it on iTunes now. So every music CD with the exception of boxed sets is $10. And they're trying like hell to appeal to indie kids because they're more likely to pay to support the artists they like.
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Tom

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Re: What is Indie?
« Reply #45 on: 06 Dec 2007, 19:03 »

If I buy a CD, I try to buy it from a local CD store that is not part of a long chain. This way I support independent musicians and local businesses, rather than pouring money into the Fat Cats' pockets.
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Ballard

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Re: What is Indie?
« Reply #46 on: 06 Dec 2007, 19:03 »

Which is precisely why they're failing.

I actually really respect Richard Branson. He built that company on his blood, sweat, and tears. But he's more involved in Virgin Atlantic and being obscenely rich than in the label/chain nowadays. Whoever is running the company for him is murdering it.
« Last Edit: 06 Dec 2007, 19:05 by Ballard »
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Tom

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Re: What is Indie?
« Reply #47 on: 06 Dec 2007, 19:10 »

I too respect Branson, he is fine entrepreneur and reflects all the attribute that one aught to have.
On the other hand i don't respect established, obscenely rich companies out of general principle.
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Re: What is Indie?
« Reply #48 on: 06 Dec 2007, 19:17 »

Imagine getting teabagged repeatedly by people with more money and power than you will ever have.

This has nothing to do with indie, I just wanted to see if I could get you to imagine it.

That really confused me for a second, 'cuz I immediately thought "Oh, he's talking about capitalism... but that's only tangential to indie! Or wait, is it...?"
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Ballard

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Re: What is Indie?
« Reply #49 on: 06 Dec 2007, 20:17 »

I too respect Branson, he is fine entrepreneur and reflects all the attribute that one aught to have.
On the other hand i don't respect established, obscenely rich companies out of general principle.

So you're saying one should be a fine enterpreneur but should strive never to become successful out of sheer hate for The Man?

I have nothing against established and/or wealthy companies. It is when these companies abandon what made them established/wealthy in order to become more wealthy that I have something against them.
« Last Edit: 07 Dec 2007, 12:55 by Ballard »
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