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My mum just asked me what Indie is

I have no idea what to say, but we're watching Jack Penate at the moment on telly and I worry that she thinks that's indie.



  • Tell her its music from India

    Everybody likes sitars and finger tambourines.

    • She initially thought this actually...

    • tell her when she finds out to email me and tell me what indie is

      seriously

  • It was simpler in my day

    indie is the name of the bands that you wrote in tipex on your DMs.

  • this should explain..

  • ask Amy the quirky vinyl collector

    from that website that everyone was on about ages ago, i've forgotten it!

  • if she ever subscribed to britannia music

    it would be ocean colour scene and the lightning seeds.

  • a cross between punk, guitars and grunge

  • tell her

    indie is not a genre, it's A STATE OF MIND

    amirite?

  • give her all the possible explanations

    to confuse her even more.

  • Isn't it short for Indepenent Music

    Although most of the stuff that is now classes as indie is mainstream - e.g Pigeon Detectives, Razorlight, Killers etc....

    To me (and i'm only speaking for myself here) it now seems to mean bands such as the above who play guitars but are not quite 'rock'as such

  • IT'S A LIFESTYLE, MAN

  • Well, technically...

    Hi, my first ever post, I feel it should be something brilliantly witty and caustic, but I think there is a (possibly fairly boring) answer to this, namely, "indie" means two things:

    (i) originally: Music released on independent (non-major) record labels, and thus music not created primarily for commercial gain (NB. this definition isn't based on the actual sound of the music).

    (ii) music which sounds (a tiny bit) like (some of) the music denoted by the above definition used to sound before (choose your cut-off point, say) 1992 when indie music went mainstream and thus became ripe for commercial exploitation by mainstream record labels who conciously marketed it as "indie", thus, of course, entirely undermining its coherence and usefulness as a definition.

    Does that help? I fear not... I'm not quite sure who Jack Penate is - I've heard the name - I'm pretty sure he's not indie though ;-)

    • yes

      we all know all of this.

      • don't be so rude

        can't you see he's trying to fit in

      • The thing is...

        ...that I'm really not sure everyone does - imagine that you're 14, having grown up in an era where EMI darlings Coldplay are "indie", and Rolo Tomassi are anything but, then it's about as obscure as trying to work out the etymology of "Canary" <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canary#Etymology>

    • hello

      everyone one on her is a git

      including me!

      welcome though, its all fun and games anyway.

  • luckily

    it's in the observer today

  • hmm

    when she says "what does 'indie' mean" just reply "it meants im better than you"

    • ^^^^

      FYI I also like to shout this at the point of orgasm.

  • reply thus

    'I wonder what an indie band would say a 'Mum' was'?

    This question will confuse her enough to buy you time to flee.

  • Keane

    Razorlight

  • My mum claims all indie is like Bob Dylan

    but shit.

  • Anything not on a major label

    or 'indie' label owned by a major, eg: Transgressive, DTTR, etc.

    It doesn't really mean guitar music anymore, as all guiter 'indie' is mass-produced major label shit.

    Oh, and that Amy girl is a cunt.

  • i dont know but its sweeping the nation