For years, Americans never used the term ‘indie’, preferring to label the likes of Bush ‘alternative’. But things changed …

Why do so many Americans think they invented indie? SimianBaffin

There has never been an authoritative definition of indie in the United States. The term only came into popular usage in America in the 2000s. The indie nomenclature was initially co-opted and embraced by video gamers, then in cinema discourse, and finally by the American music community.

There are dramatic differences between the way indie evolved Stateside and its development in the UK. In the UK, indie was a formally recognised genre with its own chart and rules for inclusion and exclusion. The British rule, steeped in controversy, was independent distribution, not independent label. As independent labels primarily used independent distribution, this definition presented a convenient loophole for major labels to exploit.

In the US, however, the independent sector was nurtured and fostered by college radio. Initially, this less conventional music was called college rock. It had its own chart and magazine, College Music Journal (CMJ). It was a college music chart that would be included in Rolling Stone and the other media outlets as the alternative to Billboard’s comprehensive chart. College rock was a playlist-based classification, a radio format constituted by the varied and erratic tastes of a network of college radio music directors. College radio stations were free to choose their songs. They were just as likely to play Neneh Cherry, Camper Van Beethovenor the Gin Blossoms as the Replacements, Black Flag or Jane’s Addiction. The nature of label ownership had nothing to do with it. Many of the college music directors making these decisions became members of the American corporate music industry.

As college rock became more successful it started to be called alternative, modern rock or, occasionally, underground. Grunge was its most successful public face. Alternative was the category recognised by official industry bodies. In 1991, the Grammys added alternative as an award category. Its definition was: “Recordings of a non-traditional form that exist (at least initially) outside of the mainstream music consciousness.”

In the 80s and 90s indie was not a recognised category in the US outside of internationally touring musicians, industry professionals or the small segment of anglophiles who read imported copies of NME and Melody Maker. In the 90s, when I told people I was studying indie music culture, I was either asked if I was talking about music from India or told it didn’t exist. The people who refuted indie’s existence included American and Canadian music scholars, North American music journalists and radio DJs. In autumn 2000, when I asked if anyone on my course of 350 students aged 18-22 knew what indie music was, only one student raised his hand. This lack of official recognition continued at least through 2004 as American classifications in the Gracenote CDDB database still referred to bands as “alternative”, while in the UK the same music or ringtone would be classified as indie.

When I insisted indie existed, I would be told it was the same thing as alternative, just with a different name. So were alternative and indie coterminous? You might suggest a rose by any other name would smell as sweet, but that forsakes the connotative power of language. It makes a difference that “punk” meant a worthless hoodlum, or that the names of punk bands and labels were meant to offend: Rough Trade, Epitaph, Stiff, and Slash. Hip-hop labels or imprints such as Def Jam and Ruthless, Death Row and Cash Money often use neologisms reflecting the phonetics and morphology of African-American vernacular English as well as names that suggest where the artists are coming from or where they are going.

Dance and electronica labels and artists use terminology that suggests the future and science. The letter X is used extensively in electronica’s alternative spellings (XL, Triple XXX, Astralwerks, Future Groove, Wax Trax). X is used in product branding to suggest science and cutting-edge advancements. This all suggests we find meaning in our labels and nomenclature. Or, as Nabokov would assert, Dolores is not the same thing as Lolita. The alternative American scene and its labels were the subterranean descendants of punk proclivities: Sympathy for the Record Industry, Dischord, Alternative Tentacles, Sub Pop and Matador. Indie, on the other hand, was the modest scion of the post-punk landscape. Indie is the diminutive of independent and often has names that are self-conscious, small and innocent: Sarah, Heavenly, Postcard, Fierce Panda, Mute or How Does it Feel to Be Loved?

Yet it wasn’t just at the level of language that the two genres showed differences – bands that composed American alternative and British indie were radically different, too. The alternative underground is the land of Michael Azerrad and his eminently readable book, Our Band Could Be Your Life, the male-heavy account of the American post-punk landscape that features Big Black, Minor Threat, Sonic Youth, Dinosaur Jr, Hüsker Dü, and Butthole Surfers. Underground alternative was aggressive and heartily masculinist. It ignored the British and Irish bands that were the heartland of indie. When women played alternative, they were grrrls having to conform to the aggressive rules of a guys’ playground.

While the British indie scene included these American bands under its umbrella, it also included British bands, many of which had a more harmonic aesthetic, were more comfortably feminine and sexually egalitarian. Bands including Pulp, Ride, Curve, Orange Juice, Blur, Suede, the Divine Comedy, the Beta Band, Stereolab, My Bloody Valentine, the Wedding Present and Primal Scream were simply ignored in the States outside of a small but loyal anglophile fanbase. In 1995, the only British band getting any play during the alternative revolution was Bush.

The sea change for indie in the US was the wave of turn-of-the-century bands that used British indie music as their inspiration, and the international democratisation of music discourse due to the internet. Now people did not have to wait for a monthly or a weekly paper to get music news. The British press, with its quicker nationalised weekly publishing rate, was usually the first to cover new bands, and now that information could be immediately consumed and synthesised by a worldwide audience. Online media outlets such as Pitchfork could publish even faster. Indie, in popular use in the UK from the late-80s, became the label of choice for Americans – and an even greater worldwide audience – to talk about modern rock and pop music. It appealed to a youthful demographic governed by sensibilities and ethical concerns similar to those that informed the British indie scene. Alternative as a genre was swept under the carpet, and many of the arguments about the definition of indie (label, genre, attitude, artistic control) that have existed in Britain and Europe for the better part of 25 years, Americans have credited to themselves. After all, if Sebadoh wrote Gimme Indie Rock, Americans must have invented it.

Global: Wendy Fonarow | guardian.co.uk

PopMatters

'Wildwood' Is a YA Epic Courtesy of an Indie-Rock Icon PopMatters Colin Meloy is well known as the primary songwriter and lead singer for indie-rock stalwarts The Decemberists, aka The House Band for English Majors. His reedy voice tends to provoke strong reactions both positive and …

indie music – Google News

Music Review: Corporate X – The X Project Seattle Post Intelligencer (blog) Their latest record, The X Project, is a fully realized effort. It's tough to produce such a stylistically varied record, genre-wise, but Corporate X succeeds. Their music is a stylistic concoction of indie, alternative, rock, downtempo, and synth pop. … and more »

indie music – Google News

In one of the dozen or so critics awards announcements that have come in the past 48 hours, Terrance Malick's "The Tree of Life" topped the winners of the African-American Film Critics Awards, toppijng runners-up "Drive," "Pariah" and "Rampart."
Woody Harrelson ("Rampart") and Albert Brooks ("Drive") took acting wins alongside "The Help" stars Viola Davis and Octavia Spencer, while "Shame" director Steve McQueen took directing honors.
The full list of winners is below. Check out a list of all the awards so far this year here.
Best Picture: 1. The Tree of Life
2. Drive
3. Pariah
4. Rampart
5. Shame
6. Moneyball
7. The Descendants
8. A Better Life
9. My Week With Marylin
10. The Help
Best Director: Steve McQueen (Shame)
Best Actor: Woody Harrleson (Rampart)
Best Supporting Actor: Albert Brooks (Drive)
Best Actress: Viola Davis (The Help)
…
Indiewire

1. Wretch 32Don’t Go (feat. Josh Kumra)new | 1 week in chart [Levels/Ministry Of Sound]20 clips available
2. 
3. DJ FreshLouder (feat. Sian Evans)down 1 | 7 weeks in chart [Ministry Of Sound]3 clips available
4. 

   AdeleSet Fire To The Raindown 1 | 30 weeks in chart [Xl Recordings]12 clips available

5. 

   ExampleChanged The Way You Kiss Medown 1 | 11 weeks in chart [Ministry Of Sound]10 clips available

6. 

   AdeleSomeone Like Youdown 1 | 30 weeks in chart [Xl Recordings]12 clips available

7. 

   AdeleRolling In The Deep non-mover | 31 weeks in chart [Xl Recordings]12 clips available

8. 

   AdeleMake You Feel My Love up 1 | 135 weeks in chart [Xl Recordings]12 clips available

9. 

   Charlie SimpsonParachutes down 3 | 2 weeks in chart [Nusic Sounds]3 clips available

10. 

    Vato GonzalezBadman Riddim (Jump) (feat. Foreign Beggars) down 2 | 9 weeks in chart [Levels/Ministry Of Sound]1 clip available

11. 

    Alex GaudinoWhat A Feeling (feat. Kelly Rowland) non-mover | 12 weeks in chart [Ministry Of Sound]1 clip available

12. 

    Wretch 32Unorthodox (feat. Example) non-mover | 18 weeks in chart [Levels/Ministry Of Sound]20 clips available

13. 

    Wretch 32Traktor (feat. L) up 12 | 31 weeks in chart [Levels/Ministry Of Sound]20 clips available

14. ExampleKickstarts down 1 | 62 weeks in chart [Data]10 clips available
15. DJ FreshGold Dustup 5 | 55 weeks in chart [Data]
16. 

    Tiesto Vs DiploC’Mon (Catch ‘Em By Surprise) (feat. Busta Rhymes)non-mover | 29 weeks in chart [Wall Of Sound]

17. FeederBuck Rogers new | 115 weeks in chart [Echo]1 clip available
18. Charlie SimpsonDown Down Down re-entry | 19 weeks in chart [Nusic Sounds]3 clips available
19. Arctic MonkeysThe Hellcat Spangled Shalalala new | 5 weeks in chart [Domino Recordings]13 clips available
20. 

    GyptianHold You down 2 | 63 weeks in chart [Ministry Of Sound]7 clips available

21. Ed SheeranCold Coffee down 4 | 14 weeks in chart [Sheeran Lock]7 clips available
22. Swede MasonMasterchef Synesthesia down 12 | 3 weeks in chart [Dental Records Shine Tv]
23. 

    YasminFinish Line down 1 | 15 weeks in chart [Levels/Ministry Of Sound]4 clips available

24. Bon IverHolocene new | 5 weeks in chart [4 Ad]1 clip available
25. Ed SheeranLittle Bird down 2 | 14 weeks in chart [Sheeran Lock]7 clips available
26. Caro EmeraldThat Man down 7 | 14 weeks in chart [Dramatico/Grand Mono]3 clips available
27. TiëstoWork Hard Play Hard new | 1 week in chart [Musical Freedom]1 clip available
28. SmouseSquashed N***Adown 7 | 2 weeks in chart [Demon]
29. 

    The Temper TrapSweet Disposition down 1 | 108 weeks in chart [Infectious Music]7 clips available

30. The 2 BearsBear Hug down 16 | 12 weeks in chart [Southern Fried]1 clip available
31. Miles Kane & The Death RampsLittle Illusion Machine (Wirral Riddler)new | 1 week in chart [Domino Recordings]

“Live Wire” (Leathur) Motley Crue Lyrics

Plug me in
I’m alive tonight
Out on the streets again
Turn me on
I’m too hot to stop
Something you’ll never forget
Take my fist
Break down walls
I’m on the top tonight

(Pre Chorus)
No no
You better turn me loose
You better set me free
Cause I’m hot young running free
A little bit better than I use to be.

(Chorus)
Cause I’m alive
Live wire
Cause I’m alive
I’m a live wire
Cause I’m alive
Live wire
Cause I’m alive
I’m a live wire

I’ll either break her face
Or take down her legs
Get my ways at will
Go for the throat
Never let loose
Goin’ in for the kill
Take my fist
Break down walls
I’m on top tonight

(Pre-Chorus)(Chorus)

Come on baby
Gotta play with me
Well I’m your live wire
You better lock your doors
I’m on the prowl tonight
Well be mine tonight

(Chorus)

Come on be my baby
Come on tonight
Come on love me baby
Come on tonight
I’ll give you everything
You want inside
Plug me in, plug me in
I want you
Come on tonight

Too Fast For Love is the debut record of American heavy metal band Mötley Crüe; 900 copies were released in November 1981 on the band’s Leathür Records label.

UK TOP 30 INDIE SINGLES CHART

17 JULY 2011

Recording an album is what they’ll do but their ‘Help A Brother Out’  campaign see’s them asking fans to contribute now & receive a deluxe  package of the album once it’s finished. All information is at this high-tech website link.

http://www.tubelord.bigcartel.com/product/2nd-album-early-bird-help-a-brother-out

Tubelord on Youtube

BBC – Radio 1 – The Official Chart with Reggie Yates – UK Top 30 Indie Singles Chart

Adele Someone Like You

Click here to get the latest UK Top 30 Indie Singles Chart

The top eight movie scenes with indie cred are.

8. Dirty Dancing (Vestron)
7. Hustle & Flow (Paramount Vantage)
6. Sid & Nancy (Samuel Goldwyn Co.)
5. American Psycho (Lionsgate)
4. Reservoir Dogs (Miramax Films)
3. Pulp Fiction (Miramax Films)
2. This Is Spinal Tap (Embassy)
1. Blue Velvet (DeLaurentiis Entertainment Group)

Dirty Dancing