With St. Jerome’s Laneway Festival just around the corner, we brush up on our indie music history.
With St. Jerome’s Laneway Festival just around the corner, we brush up on our indie music history.
Remember when Taylor Swift threw shade at one of her ex-boyfriends by delivering a sarcastic put-down of his taste for indie music that was “much cooler” than her’s? Yeah, well, it turns out that there’s a lot more irony going on in that one sentence than you might think.
It’s true: when we think about “indie musicians”, we tend to think of a group of artists defined by nothing more than a mystical quality of “coolness”. Factors that contribute to this can include but are not limited to: how much radio airplay this artist gets, how (un) recognisable they are to the general public (read: basics), and whether they play in tiny venues or giant arenas.
So when it comes to Taylor Swift and her tale of past love, it makes sense that Mr Wrong was dismissive of the pop princess’ mass appeal. After all, when it comes to street cred, Taylor Swift is about as turnt as a slice of home-baked apple pie, right?
“This guy was the kind of dude who was like, ‘Oh, I just went and saw this basement concert and there were only four people there, but… they’re starting to blow up now so I’m really over it,” Taylor says jokingly, in a radio interview with Nova FM. “And I’m like the opposite!”
But what’s really funny is the true irony of the story. ’Cause, guess what? Tay-Tay might be the biggest pop artist in the world right now, but she also happens to be the biggest indie artist in the world, too.
As indie as Taylor Swift
Say, what? You might think we’re crazy, but here’s our logic: by defi nition, what “indie music” means is simply this: music that is produced independently from major music labels like Universal, Warner, EMI and so forth. And while you might think that Taylor Swift is just about as commercial as it gets, she is actually signed to an independent record label called Big Machine Records.
Here’s where it gets a little technical – Big Machine Records is a Nashvillebased country music label. And while it records, produces and owns the rights to all of Taylor Swift’s music, it doesn’t actually distribute or market her material all over the world. Instead, it has a distribution deal with Universal Music Group (UMG), one of the biggest music conglomerates on the planet. To put it simply, Big Machine Records makes and owns Taylor Swift’s music, and UMG helps to sell it.
Which is to say that – technically speaking – the country-coquette-turnedpop- diva Taylor Swift is and always has been an indie artist. Other surprising names that currently fall under the indie category include Miley Cyrus, whose experimental pop album Miley Cyrus & Her Dead Petz was released independently last year. Also, Janet Jackson, who released her latest album Unbreakable under her own record label, Rhythm Nation Records. Tell that to all your high-and-mighty hipster friends.
The indie sound
But, OK, what about indie music as a genre? Maybe it’s not indie unless it’s indie rock?! In the days of Ramones, Sex Pistols, Joy Division and The Smiths, it’s certainly true that indie rock had a distinctive lo-fi sound. Back then, eschewing big music companies usually meant more creative freedom, but also small budgets and no access to highquality studios. Hence the raw, edgy, “garage” (as in, recorded in one) sound that came to define early indie rock.
But these days, indie rock has lost a lot of its original rebellious edge. As NPR Music writer Stephen Thompson notes: “Technology has made it easier than ever to replicate studio slickness on a small budget, to the point where low fidelity often sounds like an artistic decision rather than a matter of necessity.”
“Which, in turn, means that independence – real or imagined – needn’t translate into anything that can be heard in a recording,” he continues. “Indie rock certainly qualifies as a genre, and we generally know indie rock music when we hear it, but it’s hard to pin down one prevailing sound based on means of distribution and marketing.”
A look at music website Last.fm’s top indie rock artists confirms this to be true. The list features recognisable indie rock stalwarts like Arctic Monkeys, Radiohead, Franz Ferdinand, The Killers and Death Cab for Cutie, but when you try to break the list down by who’s on an indie label and who’s not, things get pretty dicey.
Some of the bands – like Franz Ferdinand and Arctic Monkeys – belong to indie labels (in the case of both, a London-based company called Domino). Radiohead, however, has always been signed to EMI, while The Killers and Death Cab for Cutie released their most recent music under major labels.
Label love
So what does it all mean? As Stephen Thompson puts it, when it comes to indie rock, “it’s splintered to a point where the term has lost much of its meaning or value.” But if it helps you categorise the music you like, then by all means, go ahead and proclaim yourself an indie lover for life.
But just remember, indie music – whether it’s defined by production values or a particular sound – is not intrinsically better than other forms of music. Whether you fangirl over Muse or Miley, Taylor or The Strokes, the best rule of thumb is to not be a hater, because no one likes a snob. After all, it’s so much more fun to invest your energy in things that you love, so why not do just that?
