Indie music - what it is?

Our group are swayed more towards the genre of Indie Rock such as artists like;

- The Kooks
-The Hoosiers
-Razorlight
-The Wombats
-Arctic Monkeys

'Indie rock is a genre of rock, and a means of producing that music, that originated in the United Kingdom and the U.S in the 1980's. It is rooted in earlier genres such as alternative, post punk, and new wave.' - Sourced from wikipedia

The artists themselves

Indie artists are usually presented as scruffy, usually male and are often shown playing there instruments as the music itself provides a more genuine style of music in comparison to the electro/pop genre where mainly synthesisers are used to give artificial sounds.

The word 'Indie' is an abbreviation from the the phrase 'Individual record label'. this simply means any record label that is not owned by the few large labels and instead remain 'independent'.


There appears to be two types of understanding of what the Indie rock genre is. For example many people class indie rock as any song produced through the independent music labels such as Domino Records. This means that any artist that is signed under these labels can be classed as 'Indie'. However the second perception of the term 'Indie Rock' is as a genre of music itself. Instead of how it's made it is the sound that is classified into the genre. This appears to be the most common way the term is defined in modern society as the majority of consumers seem unaware of the record industry in general, but are subject to the audio tracks and artists everyday!

With the use of Internet sites it allows independent record labels able to promote their products with a relatively low cost, instead of artists taking the path of a major label which of course will inject large cash investments into promoting their clients. The major contract difference between an independent label and a major label is that independent labels tend to offer higher royalties in comparison to the major labels. This is usually because the independent labels have much lower costs due to lower levels of promotion and marketing. Independent labels do have some downfalls such as a lack of resources due to a lower initial capital investment. The appeal for many artists to take on an independent label are that they receive more flexibility and freedom compared to signing with a major label. Many independent labels are a simple one or two man operation making the work in hand very personal and closely linked to the people running the operation as well as the artist.

Many artists sign with a major label because they believe they are more likely to because famous. This is not necessarily the case, as only around 1 in 10 Cd's released by major labels actually make a profit. It could be argued also however that since 1991 only 12 independent labels have been able to reach the top spot on the billboard 200 chart showing that maybe they do not have the same scale of sales output as these larger firms.