Alternative or Indie?
In the old movie Blues Brothers, there’s a much-quoted line, in which a member of the staff of a rough-and-tumble redneck bar offers the venue’s stage play to host both kinds of music- Western and Country.
The seemingly interchangeable terms may make you think – do they stand for vague beliefs and ideals, or are ‘alternative’ and ‘indie’ actually interchangeable?
The answer is yes and no. Essentially, the basic rule used to be the difference in their locations. Alternative was used by Americans and Indie came from the British Isles.
Indie?
Indie, to begin with, was an English expression. Indie started as the trade term for records released by smaller labels. As I have written in my blog The Evolution of Indie Music, historically (in the 1960s), Indie music used to be defined as something that was not published by the big four players in music publishing, namely Universal, Sony, Warner, and EMI. However, growing and being noticed without the support of a label, in times when there was no internet, was difficult and therefore, most Indie bands of those days went unnoticed.
Later, in the 1970s, when the world woke up to punk-rock, the do-it-yourself or DIY ethos flowered in England. In the 80s, the independently released singles began chronicling the UK Indie Chart when labels like Factory, Cherry Red, Rough Trade and Mute grew in stature.
The C86
The simple classification changed when the iconic cassette compilation C86 was distributed with the English Weekly NME in 1986, or so people form that age point out. An English guitar-pop underground called ‘cutie’ or ‘shambling’ was sought to burgeon through the compile. The 60s acts like The Byrds and Velvet Underground were believed to have drawn these bands to play this amateurish form of homemade music. As the names suggest, this music was made by a proud indie band to evoke wit out of the biggest band of UK at that time and hence, C86 obviously became a landmark. It became a huge hit, then it created buzz in town and then it was all people in the industry were talking about. Its fame led to the term ‘indie’ becoming synonymous to the style of this particular cassette or album.
By ‘this style’, I mean mostly sexless, retro-phonic form of music that consists of a vague feeling of nostalgia caused by jangly guitars. Indie became a state of mind caused by a singular guitar tone, instead of the factual realities of record distribution.
The World of Indie
The 25 years of bookish boys and block-fringed girls, seemingly frustrated sexually, proudly playing indie music, would make you think of indie as a definable style, if not a singular sound. However, as I said earlier, it depends on which side of the pond you are.
In The US, indie still means meek, twee, Anglophilic and always retrophonic. Being indie is to do it without aggression, without distortion. With the current state of American radio, this almost makes indie acts underground bands by nature.
All Yellow
With time, however, in England, the birthplace of the word ‘indie’, the term has come to mean something entirely different. Today, Indie is used for a shorthand form of non-rock in its most dire form; instead of being proudly used to describe bands with do-it-yourself approach and down-to-earth attitude. Lately, indie is being routinely used to describe bands successively playing melancholy balled-rock that is inoffensive and impossibly bland.
The Indie kings- Coldplay and Snow Patrol, are known to have played soft, jangly, tension-free songs and polished them to today’s FM radio sheen. These two outfits of indistinct, fresh-faced and famous fellows are just the ones you know for having made it outside the British Isles. If you have heard about-or, worse, actually heard Razorlight, The Fratellis or The Kooks, you likely live in the UK.
The Verdict
Now that you know the distinction between ‘Alternative’ and ‘Indie,’ maybe you could use them more judiciously. Regarding the differences between indie, indie-pop, and indie-rock, you might just have to use your imagination, because there really isn’t much difference!
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