I thought I'd just like to make a post on current Indie genres and movements. As well as criticise bands labeled as Indie, when they're totally not. Plus list bands, which are Indie, withing their movements
So, lets start a list :
Alternative Dance
- Orgins in the mid-2000's. Gained mainstream attention around 2008 when Bloc Party released the Intimacy album.
- Draws from Dance-pop music, 80's Synthpop, Dance-punk and the Post-punk revival of the 00's.
Notable bands
- Bloc Party
- Foals
- Franz Ferdinand
- Magic Wands
- Robots in Disguise
- Yeah Yeah Yeahs
Alternative/Underground Hip Hop
- Has its orgins in the late 80's and early 90's, at a time when many musicians wanted to keep to the core ideals of the Hip Hop culture, yet at the same time be individually artistic.
- Many artists have come with in the realms of mainstream attention, but have at the same time, kept to their underground roots.
- Notable record labels include Def Jux and Rawkus Records.
Notable artists
- Aesop Rock
- Del Tha Funkee Homosapien
- El-P
- Hieroglypics
- Rob Sonic
- MC Lars
- Mr. Lif
- Murs
Alternative Rock
- Orgins in the mid-80's. Started gaining mainstream attention in the mid-late 80's in the UK and early 90's in America
- Is rooted in Post-punk, Hardcore punk, Noise music and various other forms
- Is a very wide umbrella term. So technically, there's no definite Alternative sound, but unifying elements.
- Is quite mainstream at times
Notable bands
- Arcade Fire
- The Dead Weather
- The Kills
- Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds
- Radiohead (they're actually signed to an Independant label now, the left Capitol a while back)
- Sonic Youth (left Geffen and now signed to Matador)
Note: A lot of major label, heavily popular bands are labeled Alternative rock by the mainstream. To us Indie people, those bands aren't alternative because they're at the state where they aren't an alternative to anything, i.e. they are the mainstream. Examples of these bands include:
- All American Rejects
- Blink 182
- Green Day
- Sum 41
Those are Pop Punk bands.
Cyberpunk
- Technically, not a genre, but an aesthetic, and a collective term for musicians who either incorporate a fashion or visual sense simular to cyberpunk, or lyrical themes related to cyberpunk.
- Covers genres as varied as EBM, Avant-garde, House music and Post-Industrial
Notable bands:
- Anglespit
- Apoptygma Berzerk
- Joy Division
- KFMDM
- Mindless Self Indulgence
- VNV Nation
Dark Cabaret
- Orgins in the early 00's, gained some mainstream attention around The Dresden Dolls
- Influenced by Alternative rock, Avant-garde, Cabaret music and Gothic rock.
- Notable predecessors include Goth band The Sex Gang Children and Rozz Williams' solo work with Gitane Demone.
Notable bands:
- Andi Sexgang
- Audra
- Black Tape for Blue Girl
- The Brides
- Gitane Demone
- Revue Noir
- Voltaire
The term became popular with the release of the Projekt compilation album Projekt Presents: A Dark Cabaret
Deathrock/Gothic Rock
- Orgins in the year 1979, when Bela Lugosi's Dead by Bauhaus, arguably the first gothic rock song, was released.
- Draws from Punk rock, Glam rock, Post-punk, Dub and Art rock. Early bands like Bauhaus also drew from Funk.
- Achieved a degree of mainstream popularity in the mid-late 80's, with bands such as the Sisters of Mercy, Fields of The Nephilim and The Cure gaining pop-chart success.
- Has gone through five phases, the first wave (1979-1984), second wave (1985-1990, when the genre reached its mainstream peak, and achieved a more rock-based sounds), third wave (1991-1999, when its popularity went underground, and the genre added elements of Neoclassical and Electronic), fourth wave (2000-2009, also refered to as the Deathrock Revival, due to the resurgance of interest in the early 80's goth and deathrock sound, which resulted in goth bands adopting a punkier sound.) and the arguably existing fifth wave (2009-present) which has birthed the new Lo-Fi Goth movement.
Notable bands:
- 45 Grave (reformed)
- All Gone Dead
- Bay Laurel
- Christian Death
- Cult of Xymox
- Frank The Baptist
- Human Drama (signed to RCA for a period in the late 80's, but left them)
- Ikon
- Sex Church
- Sex Gang Children
- Zola Jesus
Garage Punk/Garage Rock Revival
- Garage Punk has its orgins in the mid 80's in bands such as The Gruesomes who were part of an obscure underground Garage rock revival, blending 60's Garage bands like The Sonics with Punk rock sounds such as The Ramones and Black Flag.
- The Garage Rock Revival includes both the Garage Punk bands, and the newer Garage bands who stuck with original sound of the 60's, such as the Fuzztones.
Notable bands:
- Black Lips
- The Black Keys
- Carbon/Silicon
- Dwarves
- The Fuzztones
- The Hives (technically, no longer an Indie band)
- The (International) Noise Conspiracy
- Los Peyotes
- Yeah Yeah Yeahs (early work)
Hardcore Punk/Post-Hardcore/Melodic Hardcore
- Hardcore Punk developed in the late 70's and early 80's in the United States out of the pre-existing Punk Rock scene. Many of these bands were more inspired by the angry raging UK Punk Rock scene (The Sex Pistols, Crass) then the more melodic New York punk scene (Ramones, Blondie). The Hardcore bands played faster, angrier, and more aggresive music than the traditional Punk bands.
- Melodic Hardcore bands incorporated elements of Pop Punk and Skate Punk music, many of these bands are jokingly refered to as Warped Tour bands, due to their commercial appeal.
- Post Hardcore developed in the mid-80's around the DC Hardcore scene, these bands reacted to the violence in the scene. And incorporated elements of Post-punk as well. Some Postcore bands were refered to as "Emo" bands, but many rejected the term and blasted it as bullshit.
- Various subgenres and offshoots of Hardcore include; Artcore, Grindcore Metalcore and Grunge music.
Notable bands
- A Day to Remember
- A Wilhelm Scream
- Bad Religion
- Descendents
- Fucked Up
- Good Riddance
- NOFX
- No Use for a Name
- Propagandhi (older material)
Note that I excluded notable bands (e.g. Rise Against, since they're signed to corporate labels.)
Indie/Jangle Pop
- Indie Pop has its orgins in the mid 80's and is an umbrealla term for various types of music including Twee Pop, Jangle Pop and Riot Grrrl.
- Has its orgins in Post-punk and Pop music.
Notable bands
- Beat Happening
- Belle & Sebastian
- Camera Obscura
- Hatcham Social
- Los Campesinos!
- Shout Out Louds
- Tullycraft
Industrial/Post-Industrial (read for subgenres and offshoots)
- Industrial music has its orgins in the late 70's towards the end of the 1st wave of Punk rock. Although the genre had many Avant-Garde prototypes. Including Post-punk bands such as Joy Division, Electronic groups Kraftwerk and Gary Numan, the Musique Concrete of Pierre Shaeffer, Noise artists such as Lou Reed and Luigi Russoli and Krautrock bands such as Neu! and Can.
- Post-Industrial is an umbrella term for various forms of Industrial music that took the original elements of the genre, and would create new genres by so. These genres include Industrial Hip Hop, Industrial Rock, Electro-Industrial, Digital Hardcore, Industrial Jungle Pussy Punk, EBM and Industrial Metal.
Notable bands
- Alex Empire
- Armageddon Dildos
- Einstürzende Neubauten
- Front 242
- Haujobb
- KMFDM
- Mindless Self Indulgence
- Nine Inch Nails
- Saul Williams
- Skinny Puppy
- Spetsnaz
- Tim Skold
- Tyske Ludder
- VNV Nation
Lo-Fi
- Technically, the Lo-Fi genre predates the Alternative and Indie genres, as the term refers to music that is recorded outside of a high quality recording studio. Arguably, the first Lo-fi recordings were those done throught the famed Mapleson Cylinders, prior the World War One. However, the term would not be used musically until the 1980's,
- Lo-Fi has no unifying sound, so genres varying from Jazz to Indie to Black Metal have been labeled Lo-Fi.
Notable artists
- Animal Collevtive
- Deerhunter
- Half Japanese
- The Kills
- No Age
- R. Stevie Moore
- Suicide
Mathcore
- Mathcore grew out of the Math Rock movement in the early 90's. As the term suggests, it fuses Math Rock with Grindcore and Metalcore music. The movement has, in recent years, gained an expanding following.
Notable bands
- A Life Once Lost
- Behold... The Arctopus
- The Dillinger Escape Plan
- The Fall of Troy
- Head Wound
- Norma Jean
Noise Pop
- Noise Pop originated in the mid 80's when The Jesus and Mary Chain took too many amphetamines, forgot to tune their guitars, started some riots and created a dense, feedback drenched sound, with fuzzy basses and guitars, and a two piece drum kit... yet managed to bring all that punk noise into the context of a pop song. It originated out of Post-punk, Psychadelic and Rock and Roll music. If you want to be more technical, you could say The Velvet Underground's White Light/White Heat album was the first Noise Pop album.
- The genre is closely related to the Shoegaze genre, which has resulted in some bands to be labeled as being of both genres.
Notable Artists
- Animal Collective
- Black Rebel Motorcycle Club
- Deerhoof
- Enon
- Garbage
- The Jesus and Mary Chain
- Les Savy Fav
- No Age
- The Raveonettes
- Sonic Youth
Noise Rock/Noise Punk
- Noise rock developed over a long period in the 60's and 70's before becoming truly noticeable as a genre in the early-mid 80's. Noise rock can be viewed as Noise Pop's more extreme cousin. Noise rock took more from the academic noise music genre (Lou Reed, John Cage, Luigi Russoli). But can again, be traced back to The Velvet Underground. The genre has a noticeable relationship with Industrial Rock.
Notable bands
- Aids Wolf
- Ex Models
- Lightening Bolt
- Melt Banana
- Mike Patton
- Parts & Labor
- Shellac
- Vitiligo
Post-punk/Post-punk Revival
- Post-punk developed in the late 70's in England and America out of the Punk Rock explosion of 1977. The first postpunk bands were inspired by the speed and fast rock and roll of the first wave of punk rock and protopunk bands. But felt the urge to take the punk ideals to break down the genre's barriers. The genre, and post punk scene would remain active into the mid 80's by which time its various offshoots, such as Gothic rock, Synthpop, Industrial and Alternative rock would overtake its popularity.
- In the early 00's, various Indie bands began performing Post-punk music again, as a result, the term Post-punk began to appear in the media again. Many of these bands were also influenced by Indie rock and pop bands. A few singed to major labels. By the late 00's, many bands such as Bloc Party and Franz Ferdinand moved onto Alternative Dance music. While Neils Children moved onto a genre that they had already influenced, Zombie Garage.
Notable bands
- Bloc Party
- Franz Ferdinand
- Interpol
- Joy Disaster
- Kaiser Chiefs
- The Kills
- Neils Children
- The Rapture
- The Ravonettes
Post-Rock
- The term Post-Rock was first used bye NME magazine to describe the british Post-Punk band Public Image Ltd. Who they declared "arguably the first post-rock group." However the term was taken seriously by the mid 90's to describe underground bands who borrowed from krautrock, avant garde classical, punk, jazz and shoegaze, as well as various forms of music. These were the first Post-Rock bands. Most Post-Rock bands are instrumental bands, although some such as Sigur Ros have made use of vocals.
- The term is not without controversy, as some Post-rock bands such as Mogwai and Godspeed You! Black Emperor have openly rejected and mocked the term.
Notable bands
- A Silver Mt. Zion
- Cul De Sac
- Do Make Say Think
- Don Cabarello
- Godspeed You! Black Emperor (on hiatus)
- Holy Fuck
- iLiKETRAiNS
- Mogwai
- Sigur Ros
- Stereolab
- Tortoise
Psychobilly/Punkabilly
- Psyhobilly has its orgins in the 1st wave of Punk rock in New York City some bands, influenced by punk rocks ideal of going back to rock basics, decided to go back to the most primitive form of rock music, Rockabilly, this, coubled with the sci fi and horror influenced fashion and lyrics of some bands, spawned the Psychobilly genre. Some bands in the early 80's inserted a faster, punkier flavor to the genre, creating Punkabilly music.
Notable artists
- The Cramps (disbanded back in Febuary after the death of Lux Interior)
- Elvis Hitler
- Horrorpops
- The Living End (earlier work)
- The Meteors
- Nekromantix
- The Reverend Horton Heat
- Zombina and The Skeletones
Shitgaze
- Shitgaze developed in the mid- late 00's out of the Garage revival and Lo-Fi scenes. The Shitgaze ethic is to reject conventional studio recording techniques, favoring low cost or free DIY techniques, and the view that instruments should be loud and heavily distorted and fuzzy, taking that ethic partially from the Shoegazers, but taking in from traditional rock and roll as well. The idea is also to produce music on the treble side, so basses are either rejected, or played at a high key. The genre is also linked to the Lo-Fi Goth genre through bands such as Zola Jesus.
Notable bands
- Ex Cocaine
- Psychadelic Horseshit
- Times New Viking
- Wavves
- Vivian Girls
The New Thing/Zombie Garage
- Okay so these two terms have been used interchangeably to refer to a new form Alternative Indie rock that derives from Garage Punk, Post-Punk, Horror Punk, Indie rock and Shoegazing. The genre developed in the mid 00's around the London underground scene, and has become quite popular in the UK especially in 2009, around the same time, the Indie scene took a turn as well.
Most bands are British, although The Jangletones are based in Sweden, and The Dead are American.
- Many bands are noted for their fashion sense, which normally makes use of simple black and white, though predominately black, fashion sense. Common clothing choices include band shirts, skinny jeans, blazers, band buttons, winklepickers, button down shirts, ties and various other accessories.
- I have a Zombie Garage studio project called The Dead
Notable bands
- The Black Tubes*
- The Dead
- Electricity in Our Homes
- The Jangletones
- The Horrors
- Neils Children
- Oh No Your Dead!
- S.C.U.M
* That band is itself a fictional band from The Mighty Boosh who were played by The Horrors.
So, whats been happening this year???
This year there's been a lot happening in Indie and Underground music this past year, when you look at it, a lot has changed, many bands have changed styles, many new genres have received a lot more attention... and popularity. Some bands have had some good albums come out... others, not so good. You can look at the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, a year ago they were a Garage-Pop band, now they're an Alternative Dance band. The Horrors, since day one, the greatest band in England, were viewed as not even being a music group a year ago, but today? They're being nominated for a Mercury award. Plus Sonic Youth have shown that just because they're going fifty, they're full of as much energy as they had back in 1981. Of course, there are the low ends of Indie this year. you look at TV on The Radio, the most overrated Hipster waste ever. Kings of Leon are embarrisingly labeled Indie rock, how the fuck? How can you call a group Indie when they're signed to Sony, RCA and Columbia? Haha what a waster and shame.
But there's more to look forward to? Its only August.
Some stuff I'd recommend to you.
Primary Colours - The Horrors
X. Enc - Neils Children
The Eternal - Sonic Youth
Tonight: Franz Ferdinand - Franz Ferdinand
We Agree Completely - Electricity in Our Homes
Magic Love & Dreams - Magic Wands
Something Clockwork Comes This Way - Spider and The Flies
Horehound - The Dead Weather
For the record, I didn't read through this that much, so you can find hundereds of grammar errors, and I wrote everything in here over a period of like two weeks haha.
Written by Brandon George
Yeah so its a split single by the New Thing band The Gaa Gaa's and the "Lullaby pop" solo project of Brandon Jacobs (best known for his work with Neils Children) known as Good Night and I Wish. Its an awesome single that I'd recommend to any follower or fan of The New Thing, or Zombie Garage as some call it. Enjoy
