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What kind of music is indie music?
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The first part is a brief introduction to indie music.

The name Indie is taken from the word "independence" and is used by bands that adhere to the spirit of DIY(DoItYourself) in the music and records released by small brands with low budgets. Although the largest independent brands will have sales transactions with mainstream brands, these independent brands still have absolute autonomy in music decision-making, so they have more freedom to discover acoustics, music sense or other emotional themes that are not known to mainstream audiences. But on the other hand, their music may not bring benefits proportional to their music taste (even independent brands actually want to stick to business, not give up business completely for music. As can be seen here, independence is a relative term).

IndieRock is deeply rooted in American underground music and alternative rock in 1980s. When Nirvana entered the mainstream, these AmericanUndergroud and AlternativeRock split immediately. Some of them followed Nirvana into the mainstream (and the whole AlternativeRock entered the mainstream at the same time), while others failed to enter the mainstream or adhere to an independent stance. This is Indie. Because the alternative has become the mainstream, these bands are independent, so they are called Indie by the alternative. IndieRock is a response to the phenomenon that Nirvana enters the mainstream. This phenomenon is that not all alternative bands have successfully transitioned to the mainstream, or these bands don't want to.

But you can't say that all IndieRock is not commercialized. For example, when IndieRock is commercialized with the help of punk (these band styles seem to be called PunkRevival), you should not seriously care whether it is independent or mainstream. In fact, it has always been recognized that IndieRock will never change its music orientation to cater to mainstream audiences, nor will it be the first choice for mainstream audiences. The reason for this is also determined by the characteristics of independent music. For example, mainstream listeners always think that this kind of music is too weird and ignorant, too incredible, too sensitive and sad, too soft and too fragile. "Space Fantasy" is too dreamy, too hypnotic, too personal and the lyrics are too exposed, and the production is too low quality and low budget. In melody and guitar improvisation, it is too angular to form more branches. Take guitar noise as an example, there are several different styles (sonic youth/dinosaur/elf/Jesus &; MaryChain style).

Since 1990s, IndieRock has produced many different branches (such as indie pop Music, Dream Pop Music, Noise Pop Music, Lo-Fi, Mathematical Rock, Post Rock, Space Rock, Sadcore and Andemo), all of which are the backbone of underground music in the United States today.

The second part IndieRock branch (vertical) IndiePop

You can think of IndiePop as an IndieRock with more melodies, less noise and less anxiety, which embodies the soft and aesthetic side of underground music. IndiePop's music pays more attention to the harmony of sound, the arrangement of music and the creation of lyrics. From the gorgeous orchestral arrangement of ChamberPop to the simplicity and directness of TweePop, the focus of everything contained in IndiePop, or the focus of this music, is more about songs than sounds.

Although both IndiePop and IndieRock believe in punk's spirit of D.I.Y(DoItYourself), the former opposes punk's nihilistic attitude and music grinding.

Noise epidemic

As a branch of alternative/indie rock, NoisePop, as its name implies, is pop music with some guitar echoes, discordant tones and worn-out sound packaging style. It occupies the middle point of bubble gum (bubble gum rock dance and avant-garde music), and it is the result of the collision between traditional pop music creation techniques and slightly aggressive WhiteNoise (used to cover up annoying noise).

When the melody of NoisePop drifts in the sound field created by the vortex guitar, its music often gives people a hazy, anesthetic and hypnotic feeling. Of course, NoisePop can be lively, angular and challenging.

The earliest NoisePop originated from music experiments, such as underground feedback and distortion. However, NoisePop's original band, SonicYouth and Dinosaur II, which are more recognized by the public, combine the rock music structure with heavy guitar distortion. The first formal NoisePop band was Jesus &;; 1986 MaryChain, who rose underground with her debut album Psychocandy, also gave birth to the most prolific and vital NoisePop band YaLaTengo almost at the same time, and her debut album was released at this time.

At the end of 1980s, NoisePop initiated the shoe-shining movement in Britain, which made the self-appreciated music more introspective and the melody more fragile. In 1990s, NoisePop continued to exert an important influence on IndieRock.

Slokole

Slowcore is really famous for its slow music. The melody and rhythm of music always give people a feeling of drifting, wandering and moving slowly, all of which are shrouded in the heavy and dim sound place created by musical instruments. Although Slowcore is sometimes entangled with similar Sadcore, basically Slowcore's music pays more attention to music than lyric.

Sadkol

Sadcore is basically a branch of alternative/indie rock. Sadcore music is soft, fragile and touching, usually inspired by disappointment, and also makes listeners feel sad and lost. Sadcore's music will focus on some emotional themes, such as unbearable sadness, loss, heartbreak and so on. , but firmly low-key: AcousticGuitar, as a symbol of the singer/songwriter's style, has been endowed with new connotations here, but Sadcore's music will not create some discordant or strong sound effects in the dark sound field. Sadcore bands such as AmericanMusicClub and RedHousePainter integrate their pain and sadness into their music, giving people a sad beauty of Leng Yan, which is a kind of music that is very suitable for listening alone at night.

Dream Pop

Dream pop music is a kind of alternative rock music with more emphasis on atmosphere, in which both sound and melody are equally important. This kind of music is usually characterized by a breathing tonic, accompanied by the atmosphere and sound field produced by the guitar or synthesizer. CocteauTwins is considered as a typical representative of dream pop music because of their almost unrecognizable tonic and ethereal sound stage. However, DreamPop also includes some other different genres, such as the post-velvet guitar rock style like Galaxie500 and the sound feedback style like MyBloodVatentine. DreamPop music pays great attention to the sound texture that music gives people, and this effect is often achieved with unique instrumental music and tonic.

The third part is other music types related to IndieRock (horizontal version)

Post-punk era

1977 after the punk revolution, many bands came into being. The inspiration of these bands comes from the independent spirit of punk, and of course, the original rough voice of punk. However, these bands don't simply repeat music like SexPistols. They extended the tentacles of music to more experimental fields, absorbed nutrients from the music of RoxyMusic, DavidBowie, T.Rex and other bands, and integrated them into their own punk music. These bands are what we call post-punk.

The similarities of these bands' music are anti-traditional cultural spirit and contempt and subversion of established rock traditions. Many such bands (such as JoyDivision or TheCure) use electronic synthesizers and guitars to create a dark and cold sound stage, while some bands use relatively mild music processing, but their lyrics and music completely overthrow the traditional rock structure and highlight the imbalance.

Post-punk bands finally turned into alternative music in the 1980s.

Alternative pop/rock

Alternative music originally refers to the post-punk band that appeared from the mid-1980s to the mid-1990s. Although there are many types of alternative music, they are similar in that they are all non-mainstream.

To some extent, based on the success of Nirvana Band in 199 1, alternative music can be divided into two groups: one group is an alternative band in the 1980s, which belonged to some independent music brands at that time. Although some bands belong to mainstream brands, they often don't get the same support as other mainstream bands in the company. Alternative music in the 1980s included a wide range, such as janglepop. Post-hardcore punk, funkmetal, punkpop and experimental alrock. The other is that after Nirvana entered the mainstream, the boundaries of the above-mentioned alternative music types became more and more blurred. The reason is that at this time, alternative music has already become a part of the mainstream market (since it is the mainstream, there is no need to subdivide various types), among which hard rock and punk deep-rooted bands are even more commercialized than those popular alternative music that dominated in the late 1980s, and at this time, alternative music has completely lost its original non-mainstream significance. After 1990s, most experimental rock bands were classified as IndieRock.

Junk music

Grunge is actually a mixture of heavy metal and punk, because the sounds made by bands like theStooges and BlackSabbath are cloudy and dark. Although the guitar performance of junk music comes directly from metal music in the early 1970s, the aesthetics of junk music is far from that of metal music. Grunge's passion and music criticism came from punk, especially influenced by the independent thought of American hardcore music in the early 1980s.

The first group of Grunge (Mudhoney, Sound Garden) is heavier than the second group (represented by Nirvana) in music, and the second group of bands is more melodic, using obvious stop-startdynamics (probably guitar terminology) in guitar playing. This easily recognizable distorted guitar playing method has become the practice of this kind of music.

After Nirvana successfully entered the mainstream, Grunge music lost its original independence and became the most popular music type of HardRock in 1990s.

Gaze at shoes

Shoegazi refers to a genre of British independent music in the late 1980s and early 1990s. The reason why it is called self-appreciation stems from the quiet stage performance style of these bands. When these bands perform on the stage, they just stare at the stage floor as if staring at their shoes all the time, hence the name Shoegazi.

But don't think that self-appreciation is only defined from a visual perspective. The reason why it represents a music type refers to the pure tone of this music. This kind of music often brings you irresistible noise, accompanied by long-term low and monotonous guitar reply, distorted sound waves and a series of guitar feedback. Voice and melody disappear on the guitar sound wall, creating a musical impact that you can't tell the timbre of various instruments at all.

Most of the music of self-entertainment bands is based on MyBloodValentine's music. MyBloodValetine once established the basic music mode of Shoe God with early Ep and the first album "Isn'tAnything". Others such as dinosaur II, Jesus &; Bands such as MaryChain and theCocteauTwins also have a great influence on this kind of music. Later follow-up bands, such as Ride, Lush, Chapterhouse and theBooRadleys, all added their own characteristics to the inherent music mode. For example, Ride added elements of psychedelic music in the 1960s, while Lush, like CocteauTwins, blended musical elements between pop music and DreamPop music.

None of the bands that entertain themselves are dynamic performers, and they are not interested in media interviews, which prevents these British bands from entering the important American market. 1992, after these bands occupied the British music media and charts for three years, and after the two waves of Britpop initiated by Grunge in the United States and Suede in China, self-entertaining bands no longer attracted public attention. Some bands (such as Chapterhouse and Ride) broke up within a few years, while others (such as theBooRadleys and Lush) continue to this day.

hi-fi

From the late 1980s to the early 1990s, the word Lo-Fi not only described the recording quality of an album, but also represented a type of music.

In the development history of rock music, in the early days, due to the poor recording equipment, the recording speed was fast, the cost was low, and there was no quality guarantee. So to some extent, these early rock records, such as Garage in the 1960s and many punk rocks in the late 1970s, can be labeled as Lo-Fi.

However, Lo-Fi has gradually been used to describe underground independent rock musicians (teams) who use four-channel recorders to record music at home. Most of this music comes from American underground music in 1980s, including bands like R.E.M, and some British post-punk bands and New Zealand bands, such as theChills and theClean.

Usually, these Lo-Fi bands will use simple pop and rock songs or free song structures to achieve perfect noise and artistic experimentalism in their music. Even though their works are still relatively simple, their music is often very different, because their music recording quality is low and distorted, and they use abstract and vague lyrics.

At first, these Lo-Fi works were only traded in the form of homemade tapes, but they were improved by several independent music brands. In particular, beat occurrence, a band owned by KRecords (operated by CalvinJohnson), released Lo-Fi true vinyl records, and several bands (such as PussyGalore, beat occurrence and RoyalTrux) which also adopted this method gained a small reputation in the American underground music circle. By 1992, people like Sebadoh and Pavement, with their noisy and disorderly record, are widely imitated in the United States and Britain. A few years later, this kind of music was "improved" by Leezfeld and Baker, and successfully brought the aesthetics of low fidelity (Lo-Fi) into the mainstream.

Post-rock/experiment

Post-rock is undoubtedly the dominant music type in the experimental rock movement deeply influenced by electro-acoustic instrumental rock in the 1990s. There are many experimental schools of post-rock music-croft rock, ambient music, ProgressiveRock, spacerock, mathrock, tapemusic, Minimalist Classics, BritishIDM, Jazz (all avant-garde) and Dubreget. In a word, music is mostly based on rock music, but it is not rock music in essence.

Post-rock music gives listeners a musical feeling completely opposite to the inspiring feelings of traditional rock music. Its music is full of hypnosis and low monotonous voice (especially in some guitar-dominated bands), and even relatively bright music makes people feel calm and awake. This is because post-rock is a response to rock, especially when mainstream music circles assimilate alternative music. Many post-rock bands were founded under the same consciousness, that is, rock has lost its true rebellious consciousness and it is difficult to extricate itself from the old model and empty posture. So post-rock rejects everything related to traditional rock music.

Post-rock music pays more attention to pure sound and timbre than melody and song structure, and most of its works tend to be instrumental, even if there are voices in the works, they are only accessories of the overall musical effect.

Post-rock music is based on the publication of 199 1 two completely different landmark works: Talk's A Laughter and Slint's Spider Country. Joke is the pinnacle of TalkTalk's transformation from synthpop. Its music is an emotional and exquisite fusion of environmental music, jazz music and minimalist music. The music of Spider Kingdom is full of thoughts, bass-driven music, mumbling poetic lyrics, obscure structure and extreme volume switching. These two works influenced many post-rock bands later.

The term "post-rock" was coined by critics. The word PostRock was originally used by SimonReynolds to describe BarkPsychosis's atmospheric music experiment influenced by TalkTalk. As a result, the word has been applied to those bands that are not classified, from bands that dare to break the established tradition (such as GastrdelSol, CuldeSac, Main) to IndieRock bands such as Stereolab, Laika, theSeaandCake (note: this does not include imitators of Slint band). Post-rock was recognized by the public after Tortoise 1996 from Chicago released its second album MillionsNowLivingWillNeverDie. This work may be the ultimate fusion of various experimental elements of post-rock In this way, post-rock immediately provided critics with a way to distinguish different bands (artists) from their predecessors. After that, post-rock quickly became the cousin of contemporary IndieRock, focusing on brands such as ThrillJockey, Kranky, DragCity and TooPure.

Ironically, in the late 1990s, post-rock gained the same reputation. Some people think this kind of music is boring because it lacks emotion, while others think that post-rock has become a household name without its initial radical integration, which is partly because many post-rock bands rarely change their original musical ideas. However, even in this backward situation, the new band (Dirty Three, Rachel's, good luck YouBlackPlayer! SigurRos) is widely praised for its unique voice, suggesting that the post-rock music type has not come to an end after all.

Neo-Psychedelia

Neo-psychedelia doctrine includes a large number of bands from the end of punk music to the present, and their music was influenced by psychedelic music in the 1960s. Whether their music is based on psychedelic pop music, such as the Beatles and early Pink Floyd, Bird's guitar rock, or even distorted sound experiments, these bands always use psychedelic drugs as a source of musical inspiration to create unusual sounds.

Some neo-psychedelia bands are really addicted to drugs, while others just use drugs as a reasonable supplement to their weird lyrics and unusual appearance. New psychedelic music can sometimes enter the mainstream pop music circle, such as Prince's works in the mid-1980s and LennyKravitz's works in the 1990s. But in most cases, these neo-psychedelia bands are active in the circle of alternative and indie rock.

Neo-psychedelia first appeared in the British post-punk movement in the late 1970s, when the main bands were theTeardropExplodes, Echo &; Office boy and software worker. Except PaisleyUnderground in the early 1980s and Elephant6collective in the late 1990s, most of the later neo-psychedelia-ism bands came from isolated areas, not from the above-mentioned music movements. Among these later neo-psychedelia bands, the famous ones are: TheChurch, an Australian band with illusory dreams about music; BevisFrond, led by NickSaloman, combines melodic poetry creation with high-volume trio; Space 3, low-key and foggy; The eccentric college rock band RobynHitchcock;; Completely eccentric MercuryRev and theFlamingLips and the eclectic British pop band Super.

Fur animals.

noise rock

NoiseRock originated from punk rock, especially those punk music that express young people's anxiety and conceit with dazzling electric guitar sound. NoiseRock, like its predecessor "NoWave", aims to polish music, achieve a funny and ironic effect or make a position and statement, while its music always resorts to pure acoustic energy.

Although most of the bands in NoiseRock focus on the threshing sound caused by electric guitar distortion (sometimes these bands also use some electronic instruments as percussion instruments or enhance the overall disharmony of music), some bands still pay more attention to the integration of sound and song structure. For example, the pioneer band SonicYouth undoubtedly brought NoiseRock to a wider audience of alternative music when it combined the melody of music with its monotonous and low noise.

SonicYouth brought a group of imitators, but not all band music is like this. For example, the music of TheSwan and BigBlack in 1980s had a darker and more gloomy tendency, while the music of Touch & Go brand became the center of this style in the late 1980s. For another example, NoiseRock gave birth to some drama schools in the 1990s, which are often described by the word "scuzz-rock". This style of music uses guitar noise to create a dirty, decadent and disgusting sound field (such as Royal Rux, Pussy Galore, The Dwarves and theButtholeSurfers).

Emotional rock

AmbientPop

Independent electron

Space rock

Chambers Pope

Shibuya district

Experimental rock

AmbientPop

As can be seen from the name, AmbientPop comes from two obviously different musical styles-when its music is based on the structure of traditional pop music, its electronic components and atmosphere show the quality of hypnotic meditation in Ambient. Although AmbientPop's music rarely grinds people, it is obviously influenced by Krautrock's Lock-groove melody. Initially, AmbientPop was an extension of DreamPop music that appeared in the Shoegazer movement. Although most musical instruments still define this sound, it is obviously different from its predecessors because it absorbs modern electronic music technology including sampling.

Space rock

The word SpaceRock can be traced back to the 1970s, when it was used to describe bands with space fantasy flavor like Pink Floyd and Eagle Wind. Nowadays, however, SpaceRock refers to a new generation of alternative/independent bands, which absorb musical nutrients from psychedelic rock and environmental music and are often influenced by experiments and avant-garde music.

SpaceRock is the kind that is almost always slow, hypnotic and unrealistic; It especially likes to explore long and disturbing sounds on the traditional song structure; Its sound is sometimes like the attachment of the texture of the flashing instrumental music.

Some SpaceRock bands are really inspired by drugs, which can bring intoxicating style effects to this kind of music: heavy reverberation of guitar sound, minimalist percussion music and slightly listless voice. The most obvious predecessor of SpaceRock is Prog-Rock, but in the subsequent development, it also evolved from Krautrock, classical simplicity and Jesus &; Inspired by MaryChain's style, NoisePop.

The first space rock band was Spacemen3, a very low-key minimalist band in Britain, and its notorious creed "taking drugs, music and drugs" influenced most of the later bands. Some bands participating in the Shoegazer movement in Britain are related to SpaceRock, especially TheVerve's early works. Most experimental groups (such as MyBloodyValentine) have influenced the revival of SpaceRock.

199 1 year, Spacemen3 split into two groups: spectrum group and spiritualization group, which deviated from the original band's music orientation and enriched SpaceRock's voice into luxurious and intimate orchestral arrangement, making spiritualization the most popular group in this music style. In the following, most SpaceRock artists or groups are either minimalists or minimalists, and occasionally mix in post-post--Rock(FlyingSaucerAttack, good luck YouBlackPlayer! ) and IndiePop(Quickspace).

Chambers Pope

The rise of ChamberPop is largely a response to the dominant position of Lo-Fi aesthetics in the11990s. It draws nutrients from luxury orchestral works including BrianWilson, BurtBacharach and LeeHazlewood. Part of the inspiration for ChamberPop comes from unrestrained music, but there is nothing ironic or vulgar in it. It pays new attention to the melody and production of music, such as baroque music level, rich orchestral music and gorgeous songs with horns. Whether ChamberPop really recognizes the existence of junk music, electronic music and other contemporary music movements.

Shibuya district

Shibuya-Kei is the name of Japanese pop music, which broke out in the fashionable Shibuya shopping area in the west of Tokyo. This area can be said to be a collection of some of the most fashionable record stores and clothing stores in the world.

If we understand Shibuya kei literally, Shibuya style refers to like-minded pop musicians who emerge from consumer culture. These Japanese young people are all grown up in a constant and surprising eclectic culture under the output of western pop music, and the result is an unprecedented collision between images, sounds and hallucinations. The music of Pizzicato5, the leading vocal group, embodies completely different influences from BurtBacharach's luxurious and unrestrained music to the dynamic rhythm of urban HipHop music. Externally, Shibuya -Kei is a first-class western pop music reflected from the mirror of modern oriental society. Its music contains many cutting and pasting techniques, and it produces brand-new works in a brand-new and exciting way.

Kei Shibuya is also a very lovely pop music: its musical perspective is often life is sweet and frank nature that women never stop paying attention to. This perspective has been developing with the progress of the times, but it has never been divorced from its own reality.

The complex sexual elements penetrating into Japanese culture also have a lot of enlightenment to this kind of music, and the innocence of teenagers in music has always been the key factor of its love.

Experimental rock

As the name implies, experimental rock is a kind of music that can forge ahead in music. Far from many characteristics of traditional pop music, the most typical one is experimental rock, which directly opposes the standard "solo-chorus-solo" music arrangement. Because the whole purpose of experimental rock is to fully release inspiration and innovation, there is no rigid dogma, but it still has some unique characteristics: improvisation, the influence of avant-garde music, the use of various musical instruments in music, obscure lyrics (or no lyrics at all), strange composition structure and rhythm, and its potential rejection of commercial tendencies.