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The Big, Well-Known Indie Bands

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Schmung:
The whole American indie scene confuses shit out of me becuase you're naming bands that I always thought were something else, like say Sonic Youth, who I'd always thought of as more the grunge side of things. Mind you, I can't even agree with people in my own country about what Indie is, since it would appear that I've pretty much gone and made up my own defenitions of whats what. To me, Indie hovers around the Blur, Elbow, Interpol, Doves area of things. Once you start talking abour Radiohead you're somewhere else entirely and bands like, say, the Manic, have always seemed a bit more rock oriented to me.

captainawesome:
Indie is short for independent, which usually means a band that either is on an independent record label (one not owned by the RIAA), or not on a label at all. I'm fairly sure this is the only requirement to be an indie band.  Other than that, it's free to interpretation.

Which is funny, because half the bands listed here aren't actually independent, they're either on one of the 5 major record labels, or on a subset of them.

Modest Mouse, Radiohead, Sonic Youth, The Flaming Lips, Suede, The Mars Volta, Placebo, The Pixies, Belle and Sebastian (as of 2003), all are on major record labels, therefore fail the first requirement to be "indie." Granted, yes, they are all excellent bands, but classifying them under indie doesn't really make a whole lot of sense, as they aren't independent.

But then, I believe classifications are part of the problem with the modern music scene.  Classifications do nothing but limit.

honest_that_way:
Indie has taken on a different slant, bands were orignally indie if they were independant but the style of music they created influenced bands who did sign to major labels, or indeed they did themselves, but it became a musical definition rather than a ideal.  Categories change over time, R'n' B once meant Rhythm and Blues now it means Rhythm and Bass. Or Shit. Either's equal.

BetterCompany:
i seriously dont think i know how to contribute to this list.

to me, i consider indie as like local or somewhat local to me (portland/pacific NW). but thats just my own definition. see but we have like the shins, the decemberists, modest mouse, built to spill, DEATH CAB (which i thought should be on top of the list, but then i started hearing crazy people calling them emo), and like every other band ever. so i dunno..maybe im not indie...maybe im not anything...maybe i dont want to be anything, i just want to listen to music. ok. sounds like a deal.

Disko:

--- Quote from: captainawesome ---Indie is short for independent, which usually means a band that either is on an independent record label (one not owned by the RIAA), or not on a label at all. I'm fairly sure this is the only requirement to be an indie band.  Other than that, it's free to interpretation.

Which is funny, because half the bands listed here aren't actually independent, they're either on one of the 5 major record labels, or on a subset of them.

Modest Mouse, Radiohead, Sonic Youth, The Flaming Lips, Suede, The Mars Volta, Placebo, The Pixies, Belle and Sebastian (as of 2003), all are on major record labels, therefore fail the first requirement to be "indie." Granted, yes, they are all excellent bands, but classifying them under indie doesn't really make a whole lot of sense, as they aren't independent.

But then, I believe classifications are part of the problem with the modern music scene.  Classifications do nothing but limit.
--- End quote ---


If you said indie was just people on independent record labels:

1. You'd be cutting off a lot of good music
2. You'd be missing the point

It's about the attitude and style more than the label i''s on. Although originally the "indie" labelling did mean that, it doesn't anymore, you can't argue about Radiohead and The Pixies having centralised indie stylings.

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