Is indie a genre?

It's not an exact parallel Whiney, but it works as a basic rule of thumb yeah

The "Indie Chart" started in 1980, but it did actually mean independent label music then. I don't know exactly when the word "indie" became a musical genre, tbh.

Those acts were probably slightly more leftfield than the Britpoppers though. In a way the original poster is right that Britpop was a form of pop rather than indie. But the bands grew out of the indie scene and were also musically influenced by indie. Sometimes even very indie, but the addition of production values and catchy choruses meant that it probably wasn't right to describe them as indie anymore.

However, if Oasis and Blur were indie in the mid 90s, then The Kooks and Coldplay are today too.

To me the notion of indie doesn't fit with the idea of genre as a sonic signifier very well at all. It's more an aesthetic politics, really, which means it's bound up in certain kinds of musical practices, institutions, discourses, etc., which better captures the broad spectrum of sounds that could all be classed as "indie." To say it's about the music somewhat ironically misses the point.

No shit.

When I was in England I saw some TV channel with like the Top 100 indie videos evar! And the top 10 was like 8 Oasis videos and Blur.

indie punk, baeleric funk, even if it's old junk....

To me the notion of indie doesn't fit with the idea of genre as a sonic signifier very well at all. It's more an aesthetic politics, really, which means it's bound up in certain kinds of musical practices, institutions, discourses, etc., which better captures the broad spectrum of sounds that could all be classed as "indie." To say it's about the music somewhat ironically misses the point.

But most contemporary genres are defined to a similar degree by their aesthetic politics. I'm thinking specifically of rap, metal and punk, especially WRT the maze of subgenres each inspires, but I suspect the same is true of every musical genre that isn't simply "pop". Like indie, these all have recognizable sonic signifiers, but we can't make any real sense of them without taking into account the "musical practices, institutions, discourses, etc." on which they're predicated.

So, what you've said doesn't seem to mean anything. We can examine indie as a sonic pallette or as an "aesthetic politics" -- just as we can with any musical genre.

why did i just waste 3 minutes reading this

Welcome to the LBZC, son

Does "indie" mean anything these days? If so, what?

a demographic

dead as a doornail. needs to re-invent itself desperately. punk could be considered more indie than indie is in 2015

http://www.picgifs.com/clip-art/entertainment/bingo/clip-art-bingo-442587.jpg

it's weird; it seems like 'indie' has become another word for 'rock'

it's rock without the rock

gonna indie round the clock tonite

The Unbearable Whiteness of Indie

Indie dream died for me once I realized there was always going to be non musicians making money off and controlling music outout at any scale from your major label down to the town scenesters with all the expendable cash.

Basically it is all a giant popularity contest anyways so just do whatever you want

things i'm tired of:

the dream pop stuff with the beats

the revival of every well-known genre from 20 years ago

not playing your instrument

death to epiphany core

Epiphone core?

Indiestars, the broke-ass rockstars.

The Unbearable Whiteness of Indie

I read this, and felt trolled

Jesus Christ, that article

http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/emma-jackson/sexism-in-music_b_8330178.html