Indie

[Graeme]

I saw an advert on tv advertising the latest up-and-coming Indie band and couldn't help but notice that they sounded exactly the same as just about every other band having hits today.

Now don't get me wrong, I love indie music, (by Indie I mean the branch of alternative rock originally known as indie because of independent label but has become a blanket term to mean most commercial alternative rock.) Bands like Oasis, Stereophonics, James and the Manic Street Preachers were the bands that got me into music.

What I don't like is what it's become which is a bunch of guys who tend to all look similar singing in unconvincing cockney accents (I'm with Ffrankwhite in that the music scene gets boring if everyone sings in an Americanised way ) But the same ethic applies because all the singers using the same god awful cockney accent even if it's not the accent they speak with gets just as boring. And the banality of the musicianship itself; to say "It all sounds the same sounds uneducated and intolerant... but it really does. there's no passion, it just feels like going through the ropes, no individuality either, it's like it's designed to a blueprint of how to be a commercially successful band.

The point of some of the good bands i mentioned earlier was that they all had an original sound, with the Manics you'd get the outstandingly clever lyrics, a wall of les paul oriented guitar and James Dean Bradfield's powerful vocals. Oasis gave you the classic Mancunian snarl over some classic rock n roll riffs and had great, catchy songs. With James there was an almost spiritual quality to their music amd sometimes a genuine sense of darkness and danger, Dave Baynton-Power's drumming standing out because it was anyhting but average and Tim Booth is one of the most underrated and charismatic frontmen of the 1990s.

Nowadays with these artists who brand themselves "Indie" you get none of that and my point is it's going to have to end soon, there are too many bands on this scene for it not to.

Just my opinion, if yours is the polar opposite, or if you agree, please share.

[UseYourAppetite]

I agree wholeheartedly, and the recent spurt of people singing in Cockney accents is fucking annoying.

Nice job mentioning the Manics and the 'Phonics by the way.

[SunnyDRE]

I saw an advert on tv advertising the latest up-and-coming Indie band and couldn't help but notice that they sounded exactly the same as just about every other band having hits today.

Now don't get me wrong, I love indie music, (by Indie I mean the branch of alternative rock originally known as indie because of independent label but has become a blanket term to mean most commercial alternative rock.) Bands like Oasis, Stereophonics, James and the Manic Street Preachers were the bands that got me into music.

What I don't like is what it's become which is a bunch of guys who tend to all look similar singing in unconvincing cockney accents (I'm with Ffrankwhite in that the music scene gets boring if everyone sings in an Americanised way ) But the same ethic applies because all the singers using the same god awful cockney accent even if it's not the accent they speak with gets just as boring. And the banality of the musicianship itself; to say "It all sounds the same sounds uneducated and intolerant... but it really does. there's no passion, it just feels like going through the ropes, no individuality either, it's like it's designed to a blueprint of how to be a commercially successful band.

The point of some of the good bands i mentioned earlier was that they all had an original sound, with the Manics you'd get the outstandingly clever lyrics, a wall of les paul oriented guitar and James Dean Bradfield's powerful vocals. Oasis gave you the classic Mancunian snarl over some classic rock n roll riffs and had great, catchy songs. With James there was an almost spiritual quality to their music amd sometimes a genuine sense of darkness and danger, Dave Baynton-Power's drumming standing out because it was anyhting but average and Tim Booth is one of the most underrated and charismatic frontmen of the 1990s.

Nowadays with these artists who brand themselves "Indie" you get none of that and my point is it's going to have to end soon, there are too many bands on this scene for it not to.

Just my opinion, if yours is the polar opposite, or if you agree, please share.

Maybe I am dumb, but I don't get what your saying.

List bands that annoy if your going to make such a blanket statement.

[Graeme]

I saw an advert on tv advertising the latest up-and-coming Indie band and couldn't help but notice that they sounded exactly the same as just about every other band having hits today.

Now don't get me wrong, I love indie music, (by Indie I mean the branch of alternative rock originally known as indie because of independent label but has become a blanket term to mean most commercial alternative rock.) Bands like Oasis, Stereophonics, James and the Manic Street Preachers were the bands that got me into music.

What I don't like is what it's become which is a bunch of guys who tend to all look similar singing in unconvincing cockney accents (I'm with Ffrankwhite in that the music scene gets boring if everyone sings in an Americanised way ) But the same ethic applies because all the singers using the same god awful cockney accent even if it's not the accent they speak with gets just as boring. And the banality of the musicianship itself; to say "It all sounds the same sounds uneducated and intolerant... but it really does. there's no passion, it just feels like going through the ropes, no individuality either, it's like it's designed to a blueprint of how to be a commercially successful band.

The point of some of the good bands i mentioned earlier was that they all had an original sound, with the Manics you'd get the outstandingly clever lyrics, a wall of les paul oriented guitar and James Dean Bradfield's powerful vocals. Oasis gave you the classic Mancunian snarl over some classic rock n roll riffs and had great, catchy songs. With James there was an almost spiritual quality to their music amd sometimes a genuine sense of darkness and danger, Dave Baynton-Power's drumming standing out because it was anyhting but average and Tim Booth is one of the most underrated and charismatic frontmen of the 1990s.

Nowadays with these artists who brand themselves "Indie" you get none of that and my point is it's going to have to end soon, there are too many bands on this scene for it not to.

Just my opinion, if yours is the polar opposite, or if you agree, please share.

Maybe I am dumb, but I don't get what your saying.

List bands that annoy if your going to make such a blanket statement.

There are a LOT of bands that I feel are covered by this, bands like The Hoosiers, The Wombats, The Kooks, The View, The Fray, Razorlight, Hard-Fi, The Pigeon Detectives etc...

As for what i'm trying to say is that, for me this scene of music which I once loved has grown stale and there's nothing significant or groundbreaking coming out of it at all any more.

[bax]

I agree in a sense-there are an awful lot of terrible bands that would label themselves indie. It seems like the only diffrence between a lot of so-called indie bands and so-called alternative bands IS the bad vocals and a bit of dissonance thrown in for good measure.

As a musician, I have to take issue with the usage of the term though. There was a point in time that the word alternative referred not to a particular style of music but rather an attitude of being something diffrent from the mainstream. Once the term began to be used to describe mainstream bands, it lost all meaning-it was a complete paradox. In the same way, indie rock once meant that the band was signed to an independent label or put the album out themselves with no label support. Now it IS thought of as a branch of alternative i.e. a part of the mainstream.

[vicious]

i agree, its all so boring and too safe. i'm so ashamed when i talk to older people about music, they tell of listening to zeppelin or even GnR on local radio or seeing them live (with originals) and we get this boring crap?

the guitar solos, if they have any, and terrible and too basic, do we have a guitar god this generation? do we have anyone with the stage pressence like Jagger ir Freddie?

[UseYourAppetite]

i agree, its all so boring and too safe. i'm so ashamed when i talk to older people about music, they tell of listening to zeppelin or even GnR on local radio or seeing them live (with originals) and we get this boring crap?

the guitar solos, if they have any, and terrible and too basic, do we have a guitar god this generation? do we have anyone with the stage pressence like Jagger ir Freddie?

Only guitar God I can think we could possibly have is Synyster Gates. Apart from him we just have the guitar greats of yesteryear.

[bax]

i agree, its all so boring and too safe. i'm so ashamed when i talk to older people about music, they tell of listening to zeppelin or even GnR on local radio or seeing them live (with originals) and we get this boring crap?

the guitar solos, if they have any, and terrible and too basic, do we have a guitar god this generation? do we have anyone with the stage pressence like Jagger ir Freddie?

Only guitar God I can think we could possibly have is Synyster Gates. Apart from him we just have the guitar greats of yesteryear.

Omar Rodriguez-Lopez, John Frusciante, Derek Trucks and Jason Isbell to name a few.

[UseYourAppetite]

i agree, its all so boring and too safe. i'm so ashamed when i talk to older people about music, they tell of listening to zeppelin or even GnR on local radio or seeing them live (with originals) and we get this boring crap?

the guitar solos, if they have any, and terrible and too basic, do we have a guitar god this generation? do we have anyone with the stage pressence like Jagger ir Freddie?

Only guitar God I can think we could possibly have is Synyster Gates. Apart from him we just have the guitar greats of yesteryear.

Omar Rodriguez-Lopez, John Frusciante, Derek Trucks and Jason Isbell to name a few.

Any relation to Izzy?

Edited January 26, 2008 by UseYourAppetite

[kevdo242]

The thing that happened to indie is what happened to punk.

Not sure if The Fray deserve to be on that list, they just sound like a Coldplay wannabe group.

[bax]

i agree, its all so boring and too safe. i'm so ashamed when i talk to older people about music, they tell of listening to zeppelin or even GnR on local radio or seeing them live (with originals) and we get this boring crap?

the guitar solos, if they have any, and terrible and too basic, do we have a guitar god this generation? do we have anyone with the stage pressence like Jagger ir Freddie?

Only guitar God I can think we could possibly have is Synyster Gates. Apart from him we just have the guitar greats of yesteryear.

Omar Rodriguez-Lopez, John Frusciante, Derek Trucks and Jason Isbell to name a few.

Any relation to Izzy?

No, but a great blues/rock guitarist nontheless.

[ADPT]

Sometimes the Manics lyrics were clever, sometimes they were cringeworthy. Especially when written by Nicky, which is probably why I liked The Great Western so much.

Anyway, I agree with you. They nearly all look the damn same. Skinny jeans, curly hair in the same style, leather jackets, same singing voice and the same sound. A few diamonds, a lot of rough.

[Estranged Reality]

Now don't get me wrong, I love indie music, Bands like Oasis, Stereophonics, James and the Manic Street Preachers were the bands that got me into music

None of those bands are remotely indie.

This is a fairly comprehensive overview, but there are a lot of mistagged artists even in this list. http://www.last.fm/tag/indie/artists

Indie music is the same as any genre: there's good and there's bad.

[bax]

Now don't get me wrong, I love indie music, Bands like Oasis, Stereophonics, James and the Manic Street Preachers were the bands that got me into music

None of those bands are remotely indie.

This is a fairly comprehensive overview, but there are a lot of mistagged artists even in this list. http://www.last.fm/tag/indie/artists

Indie music is the same as any genre: there's good and there's bad.

That's more like it. A lot of brilliant bands on the list. Some I don't care for and some that are mislabeled, but for the most part a good overview.

[kevdo242]

Now don't get me wrong, I love indie music, Bands like Oasis, Stereophonics, James and the Manic Street Preachers were the bands that got me into music

None of those bands are remotely indie.

This is a fairly comprehensive overview, but there are a lot of mistagged artists even in this list. http://www.last.fm/tag/indie/artists

Indie music is the same as any genre: there's good and there's bad.

Whys Deathcab so high on that list?

Gotta love The Smiths though.

[Estranged Reality]

Now don't get me wrong, I love indie music, Bands like Oasis, Stereophonics, James and the Manic Street Preachers were the bands that got me into music

None of those bands are remotely indie.

This is a fairly comprehensive overview, but there are a lot of mistagged artists even in this list. http://www.last.fm/tag/indie/artists

Indie music is the same as any genre: there's good and there's bad.

Whys Deathcab so high on that list?

Gotta love The Smiths though.

A lot of artists on that list aren't even really "indie," they just have a sound rooted in that style and so people kind of automatically assume they are. But it also depends how strict you are with defining it. Technically "indie" started out as a phrase used to describe any band that was independent - but over the years since Pavement, The Pixies, Flaming Lips and Radiohead, indie has come to represent a sound more so than anything else.

I'd say the big indie revolutionaries are Sonic Youth (Daydream Nation is *the* indie album), Pavement, Pixies, Radiohead, and to a certain degree, The Stooges, but more so because of the bands they inspired like Youth. Indie kids generally adore The Stooges, Patti Smith and - interestingly - Bruce Springsteen is becoming a new indie icon thanks to praise from Arcade Fire's frontman. (He's taking over the iconic place Brian Wilson had in the indie world about a decade ago.)

In terms of modern music - http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/ gives a fairly comprehensive overview of what is truly "indie" in today's world. They're about as pretentious and full of themselves as you can get, which unfortunately is what indie can often veer into because many indie musicians become asshole elitists. But artists like Of Montreal, The Magnetic Fields, Yeasayer, Bonnie "Prince" Billy, Band of Horses, Andrew Bird, Feist, Animal Collective, Battles, Iron & Wine, Deerhunter, The National, etc. are all doing interesting stuff.

The guy who started this thread - no offense - really doesn't know what he's talking about. There's plenty of great, diverse and unique indie music being made today that doesn't feature guys using fake British accents. Oasis is not, and never has been, an indie band.

[Graeme]

^^ Kudos to this guy who knows what he's talking about. It doesn't change how I feel about those artists whose names I quoted and the general lack of inventiveness and musical prowess they posess. And regardless of what's truly indie or not in the eyes of those who know. On the West Coast os Scotland, where I live, If you asked the majority of the people here then they'd class Oasis as an Indie band just going on their easy to listen to rock sound, as well as anything else of that general ilk.

So regardless of true genre, according to popular opinion (at least up here) it all gets called Indie I was just pointing out the sheer ordinariness of most of what the people who like it let me hear.

I didn't mean any harm in my post i was simply pointing out that what's mainstream's gotta change soon, we need another revolutionary album soon because there hasn't been one in a while, just a lot of these bands releasing safe, samey material to appeal to the masses who find it cool.

or maybe we're just stupid round where I live?

[Estranged Reality]

I didn't mean any harm in my post i was simply pointing out that what's mainstream's gotta change soon, we need another revolutionary album soon because there hasn't been one in a while, just a lot of these bands releasing safe, samey material to appeal to the masses who find it cool.

or maybe we're just stupid round where I live?

Nah, it's all good, but I would suggest browsing a site like Pitchfork and checking out some of their "best of" lists. You will find some pretty revolutionary stuff in there. The reason you aren't hearing it is because the music industry doesn't allow anything unique or revolutionary break through the way things did in the '60s and '70s; they just want money, and they know what sells, and they push Britney Spears and such while a lot of great, fresh albums go unnoticed. There's still revolutionary stuff being made - you just have to seek it out is the difference between then and now.

[Raw Power]

Probably because Death Cab is brilliant?

[kevdo242]

Probably because Death Cab is brilliant?

For whiney little 14 year old girls who think no-one understand them? Probably.

[Raw Power]

I was answering a question from last page.. forgo to update the thread.

Anyway, Death Cab is brilliant no matter what you guys say.

[NewGunner22]

Death Cab. <3

[kevdo242]

I was answering a question from last page.. forgo to update the thread.

Anyway, Death Cab is brilliant no matter what you guys say.

Brilliant how?

[Raw Power]

Try to listen to their albums.. Everything about them. The compositions, they lyrics, the melodies, everything.

Death Cab are probably the biggest band in their genre, indie-pop.

[JohnMorrison73]

seems as if indie is the new emo