More than ever, it seems that music is being slapped on with the description of being “indie”. But, what exactly is “indie” music?
Indie music covers a vast span of musical genres and landscapes, from acoustic, folksy singers to sleek, electronic acts to rock-edged, drum-heavy artists. However, they are all tied together with some label of “indie” -- be it “indie pop”, “indie rock”, or “indie folk.” Google attempts to coalesce these diverse acts under one definition of indie music: “music produced independently from major commercial record labels or their subsidiaries, a process that may include an autonomous, do-it-yourself approach to recording and publishing”.
However, many artists generally considered to hail from an “indie” realm are widely known amongst the general public and are often chief money-makers of major record labels. (Note: for the sake of examples in this article, I am only using the names of my favorite artists, because I am not trying to criticize any artists themselves for this association). For example, Birdy’s album Beautiful Lies is pretty much my favorite release of the year; I even wrote an entire article about my love for it. However, she is associated with Warner Bros. Records, a subsidiary wholly owned by Warner Bros. Halsey, one of the most commercially successful artists that can still be generally accepted as “indie”, is signed to Capitol Records, a label that has also signed the likes of John Lennon and Snoop Dogg, a label that runs international operations.
On the other side of the argument, though this case does not occur as often, there are big-name, major artists that are signed to independent record labels. The most obvious example of this is Taylor Swift, one of the most commercially and critically successful artists, whose music is played on nearly every radio station and who is almost never associated with the indie music scene in any way, shape or form (despite being influenced by it musically). However, before the days she was a household name, before she even was signed, she walked resolutely away from RCA Records, a major corporation owned by Sony after a one year waiting period with them. The company wanted to wait even another year to see if they would let her record an album, they did not offer as much artistic freedom, prompting her to leave. Later after performing in a cafe, a man named Scott Borchetta approached Swift with an offer for a record deal, yet the tiny catch was that his record label didn’t actually exist yet. Despite this, Swift accepted and was the first artist to be signed onto Big Machine Records. She helped propel the infant record label to commercial success, though to it still remains an independent record label. To this day, she is signed with them.
The infinite pool of indie artists also almost seem to have one thing in common: indie artists tend to write their own music and lyrics. This fact is very attractive to the voracious crowd of indie listeners, who, like me, find true artistry and spark in the originality of the artists they listen to. Yet, writing music alone doesn’t merit being called “indie”. There are plenty of artists heavily invested in the songwriting process but are still not quite acceptable of the “indie” title, simply due to widespread commercial success and acclaim and radio play, artists such as Adele, Ed Sheeran, and the aforementioned Swift.
Then, if songwriting and record labels don’t truly differentiate “indie” artists from non-indie artists, is radio play and chart performance the major factor? This could be argued to a point, but it ultimately falls flat. There are plenty of “indie” artists who receive radio play and climb the Billboard charts to the top. I discovered Ingrid Michaelson through the radio play for her single “Girls Chase Boys”, when Michaelson is very indie, in fact, and even releases through her own, independent record company.
Yes, there definitely are musicians out there--thousands upon thousands--who merit the title of “indie” a million times over. These are the truly unknown, coffeehouse artists, almost completely obscure.
But all in all, the term “indie music” has failed in the effort to offer any real clear insight over what it offers. More often, it’s thrown around as a term by a want-to-be hipster demographic to achieve a degree of faux superiority over the music they listen to. Instead of endlessly categorizing music into the desirable “indie” sphere and the non-desirable “mainstream” sphere, we should sit back, relax, and enjoy the music for what it really is-- a creation of beauty and art.
