Research into music genre – indie rock

Mary Medrana

◦ The indie rock genre originates from the UK and the USA in the 00’s. Indie rock is a sub genre of alternative rock, starting within the 80’s alternative rock emerged from independent underground music and slowly became more known and more popular. Slowing progressing more different styles were being produced creating more sub genres. Such bands that helped progress the genres was The Smiths, The Cure, Nirvana and Oasis.

◦ It has evolved to where it is from the underground scene. It originates from alternative rock but the sound itself has changed and progressed over time. Within the 8-’s alternative rock was a more mellow sound, more easily to listen to than pure rock music.

◦ It then progressed to Grunge in America where bands such as Nirvana became mainstream and well known to an international audience. At the same time Britpop became popular within the UK with bands such as Blur and Oasis battling out for number one spots. Within the late 90’s this type of music started to decline and left the mainstream market.

◦ Then within the early 00’s Indie Rock genre started to take hold. First commercial success came from American band The Strokes then followed up by a number of other bands. The genre was such a success because of growing popularity of the internet. More and more bands could express the music online, this meant appealing to bigger audiences, which made record labels sign a number of bands, helping to put the genre in the public eye.

◦ A band took full advantage of this was the Arctic Monkeys, the Sheffield band would give demo CD’s out at all gigs and their fans would share music on the internet. Over time thousands of people downloaded the demos on such sites such as MySpace making them extremely popular. Word of mouth on the internet made the band a great success. This has to be one of the reasons why their debut album Whatever People Say I Am That’s What I'm Not became the fastest selling British album of all time selling 360,000 within the first week.

◦ The genre is now less in the public eye with the explosion of the dance music over the last couple of years but the genre is still heavily involved on many people’s lives.

◦ I feel artists are firstly represented as talented musicians, pretty much all bands write all their own music, something which cant be said for most musicians in the charts. Artists within the indie rock genre can be stereotyped to be heavy drinkers and drug takers. This stereotype has been developed over time from people such as Pete Doherty, famous for this music, dating Kate Moss and his heroin addiction. Musicians within this genre I feel can be seen as role models as songs created are extremely creative and poetic when it comes to song writing. But people like Pete Doherty show the darker side of being a successful young person with endless money.

◦ Within current music videos within the indie rock genre you often see a narrative portrayed in between clips of live performances of the band. Doing this helps show the audience what the band are like live, making the audience want to go and see a live gig. Having a narrative also keeps the video entertaining, helping engage the audience. Within the Indie Rock genre most money is made from revenue from live performances, showing exciting clips of the band playing live is essential to get people to watch the band live. Within music videos hardly showing off takes place, this is usually to show the audience the artists are just like them; young people having fun and making the best of their life.

◦ Within current music videos within the indie rock genre you often see a narrative portrayed in between clips of live performances of the band. Doing this helps show the audience what the band are like live, making the audience want to go and see a live gig. Having a narrative also keeps the video entertaining, helping engage the audience. Within the Indie Rock genre most money is made from revenue from live performances, showing exciting clips of the band playing live is essential to get people to watch the band live. Within music videos hardly showing off takes place, this is usually to show the audience the artists are just like them; young people having fun and making the best of their life.