What do you describe as "Indie" music?

[Lonsdale71]

Until 1992, Virgin were an independent label.
Domino isn't a sub label of anyone. Transgressive are also still indie but they have a deal to 'discover' bands for Warners.

Cheers for that. Interesting to know. I often wonder how labels operate. Transgressive have Foals who in my opinion are great. I know they're not everyone's cuppa but I absolutely love "Antidotes" and can't wait for their new album.

 

[Oh my god. it's Robby!]

"indie" has lost all meaning in music

in a way very much like the term "independent" in politics

oh well

 

[Happy Maudlin]

I avoid things marketing as indie rock, especially in light of today's coporate mergers and WMG copyrights seizing various videos from my playlists. It is in great honesty for artists like Morrissey, to go against this tendency for elitism and pretention (or at the least improper classification) and declare their music as "Pop" music, because in essence it is. I can give as much indie cred to Madonna or ABBA, as I could to the Killers, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, and the blasted Arctic Monkeys. It is an image attached to a concievably vunerable demographic that enables marketability. This could be interpreted as a a musical anarchic rant, but... O what the hey.

 

[ann1985]

I don't like the term 'indie". It is a redundant term, that never really meant anything anyway. Even when we had the record labels independant of the major distribution companies, the charts they produced said nothing about the supposed genre. As I recall, when The Smiths vacated the number one slot, the likes of Kylie & Jason or Erasure kept it warm. Strange bedfellows indeed!

agree with it.

 

[Lonsdale71]

I agree "Indie" is a completely useless term these days.

The Smiths on Rough Trade were "indie".

These days small record labels can't survive without being financially supported by the majors.
But these things go in cycles; Big companies are experiencing losses due to internet & free downloading. Maybe it's the case of "Rip it Up and Start Again"? Hopefully there will be a total shake-up of the record industry and things will start again afresh? There's hoping....