Intro To Indie

Alright guys, here comes my first legit blog post so we’ll see how I do.  :P

So what I what I was hoping to go over today is “What is Indie Rock?”

For some of you I have no doubt that you are avid indie fans like me, but others I am sure had no idea that this genre of music even existed. In this blog I am hoping bridge the gap between those two groups.

So first I’ll talk about, what exactly is “Indie”, what does the title mean?

“Indie” is short for independent, as in bands that are independent by themselves and that their music is 100% their own.

You may read this and think, isn’t every musician “indie" then?

No.

You see, there is a wave going through the music industry known as pop music, ever heard of it? Of course you have, it’s all that music they play on B101 or Z103 or those other pop-music stations. “Music that you can dance to”

This music is exactly what indie is not.

Basically you can separate all music in the world into either the pop category or the indie category.

What makes pop different than indie? It’s not cause it’s “dance music”, there is dance-indie music. The big difference is how their music is produced.

This may come to a shock to some of you, but all those big artists you hear on the pop stations of the radio didn’t actually write their own music. You see, there are three major record labels in North America, and if you can sing, and sometimes even if you just look good, they will sign you to a record deal. But, in this deal, those record companies actually use mathematical equations to find a beat/sound for a song that is danceable and will sound pleasant to the ear. This may sound ridiculous to you, but it’s true, this may disgust many people, but music is math, it’s the variations in sound waves, and with math you can find the optimum mix of frequencies. Unfortunately this means that people like Lady Gaga, The Black Eyed Peas and Down With Webster aren’t really writing their own music. Now, to further perhaps ruin your opinions on modern pop stars, you know those lyrics that are all so catchy? You know, like the songs that repeat lines like “Imma Be” or “I’m so Whoa” over and over again? Pure music genius right? Well those lyrics were not even written by those groups.  These three big record companies have professional song writers, these writers receive ideas from the band, and the beat from the record companies mathematicians, mix it together, and put out another chart toping dance song with the same constant bass beat as all those before it.

Now let me make one thing very clear though, pop artists are still talented, they can sing much better than most people in the world, but I just criticize their creativity.

You see, in indie music you find artists who write every single one of their songs, it’s what they want; it has all the raw emotion of the writer because the writer is singing it. So what if this music doesn’t fit the mathematical formula, I believe it is better because it is actually the song of the band, not of its record company. Independent record companies assist a band in recording, tell them what they like and don’t like. But they never write the band’s music for them.

My blog however will be focussing on the largest sub-genre of indie, which is indie rock. Over this semester I will be helping expose you to some of the most underrated artists and groups in music today.

I hope you all stay tuned and keep following, and I hope I give you a different perspective on today’s music industry.

That’s all for now, how did I do for my first time blogging? :P

Jon