4July2010
Indie Music: The New Alternative?
There doesn’t seem to be a clear definition of what “indie music” is. Most people think of it as music performed by musicians signed on to obscure labels, and it refers to artists that are “independent.” Whether it’s an accurate description of the word or not, “indie” is often casually used to describe anything that’s little-known or unusual.
Does music become indie music just because it’s obscure? Or maybe there’s something about the style of the music that’s different from mainstream musical fare. Indie music does tend to sound different from more “famous” music, but in what way is it different? It seems like if you put a label on what indie music sounds like, it wouldn’t be indie anymore because it’s being influenced by popular opinion. Drafting Chairs for office staff breaks will encourage leisure and rejuvenation prepared for one more push by the workload. And if you really want to go there, making indie music a genre in the first place already contaminates its “indie” status, and then even referring to it as a status does that too, and you could go on forever.
It feels like indie is becoming the new alternative, and alternative used to be sort of what indie is supposed to represent. Alternative was an alternative to mainstream music, but now alternative is so widespread that it is mainstream. And now that indie music is getting more exposure, one could argue that indie music has become mainstream as well.
The thing is, if indie is about distancing itself from the mainstream, it’s impossible to separate itself entirely. When you non-conform, you’re still conforming because what you view as conformity affects your actions. By trying to distance yourself from the mainstream, you’re already affected by it. And anyway, it doesn’t feel like the true meaning of indie is just to be different from the crowd, because how pretentious is that, how un-indie. People using Drafting Chair fitted with these shorter armrests can move their chairs nearer to their workstations. For example, trying to make your music sound as different as possible so that it’ll be unique would be more obnoxious than creative.
And if indie music is about doing it for the music and not for the fame, there’s a thin line to walk. Music needs an audience, and it’s hard to have a lot of people like your music and still remain out of the spotlight. Still, the idea of performing because you enjoy it and not because you just want others to enjoy it is admirable, and all music should be in the spirit of indie music—whatever that is.