October 15, 2024 MUSINGS ON INDIE ARTISTS & HOW PARTY CENTRAL RADIO DEFINES INDIE MUSIC & INDIE ARTISTS
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WHAT EXACTLY IS INDIE MUSIC?
WHICH ARTISTS ARE INDIE ARTISTS?
I get asked quite often what is an Indie Artist or more specifically what do you consider an Indie Artist to be?
That's actually an easy answer but difficult answer and this is based on my thoughts and not what the music producers, or the music critics and such in the main stream media have to say.
Indie music started off as Artists that self-produced or paid to produce their own music. I.E., they were not signed with a label and in the beginning was more of a Indie Rock cultural feel. A few examples off the top of my head would be would be - The Buzzcocks (The first example in the UK); The Pixies, REM, The Smiths, Fallout Boy, ..
What transpired after the original dubbing of INDIE ?
It grew, and as it grew no one bothered to categorize or place a name on the different sectors, and now it has actually, in my mind, become an encompassing category. The reason I say that is the vibe is no longer the ricochet guitar riffs in all the music, it has EMO, Pop, Emo Pop, Electronic, Country (GASP), yes country, certainly Folk and Bluegrass-Folk-Alternative music in the category. This is because you have influencers from every year since the dubbing of the term Indie Music. If you think back far enough at the various sounds of the eras, Jerry Lee Lewis, Elvis, Big Bopper, Bob Dylan, Johnny Cash, The Byrds, The Beatles, The Beach Boys, what do all of those have in common? One thing, individualism. Jerry Lee with his brilliant piano and rowdiness, Elvis with his guitar riffs and mobilization on stage, Big Bopper -easy but rugged and swift; Dylan - guitar lo density lo key laid back style, Cash encompassed all during his years, if anyone was every category that has ever existed it would be the Man In Black. The Beatles - started more than a music movement, they started a culture, and the Beach Boys, they gave way to a spirited vibe that encompassed the feel of beachiness, and I would say, really were the inspiration for shag and Southern Beach Music.
So after all of these years what is Indie Music? It really defines itself only by a couple of distinct things. Artists that believe in themselves enough to do it on their own with out a label, 2) Those that later signed with labels 3) Individualism - Individualism to me is defined most in what I see are new artists starting to produce songs on their own, and many writing songs on things that matter to them or their feelings or thoughts, unhampered by the wants of a label and what a label tells them is the "hot song topic" or that sappy is out and beer songs are in. They are writing and singing from the heart. For the Indie artists that stay true to the originality of being true to themselves and only following their heart, there is something good to be said about that, and to be admired -" BE TRUE TO THINE SELF." I could expound further on Indie, as it's a topic I love both debating and explaining, but I think from what I have written you can form your own conclusions..
Here, at Party Central Radio, we are only defining INDIE as those that are 1) No Label aside from their own 2) #1 that have signed at a later date with a label.
We are not focusing on what genre, we are only focusing on 1 & 2 above.
At some point perhaps we will need to categorize based loosely on genre for the sole purpose of maintaining some sort of categorization in our music libraries, or to recommend certain groups based on a categorization, but at the moment, we are accepting all INDIE music based on the two definitions given above.
If a categorization were to occur, I would see it looking very simple with only a few categories, more like we started with years ago. ROCK/COUNTRY/BLUEGRASS & FOLK/POP/CLASSICAL The reason for those categories? Simple, there are hundreds of categories that fall under some of those categories and songs that fit in many" of those categories, we would spend hours trying to decide on a fit/match and the reason there is Indie Music is because it's INDEPENDENT & INDIVIDUALIZED
If you would like to discuss this topic, pro or con or otherwise, you may request an interview on air with us - drop an email to us via the contact form on our website at partycentralradio.net
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