At Thirsty Mind in South Hadley, late dusk set the tone for the surrounding atmosphere, guitars and keyboard started playing rhythms of tender blues—and then the band show began.

This yet-unnamed band was formed in a dorm room by three talented college girls, two of whom are roommates sharing this very room. The fact that they are still college students purifies their music: there are no sophisticated background music and flippant rhythm sounding out commercialization. They have only a guitar, a keyboard, and their brilliant voices.

I, fortunately, have befriended these indie music artists on campus. Their room always echoes enchanting melodies when they play random chords and hum along.

“I usually write songs based on my own experiences of picture myself in someone’s shoes. Its really easy to tell a story using music.”said a member of the band, “I’m a quiet person, I used to have a hard time expressing myself through words sometimes. But with music I can say how happy, sad or angry I am. I can express I feelings. Ever since I started singing in front of people, I was able show a different side of me, and I get to make friends with the same interests because that would start conversation, and that’s how I started making music and that’s usually what I express through music.”

“My dad was Lebanese.” said another fellow band member. She has been very immersed into the Lebanese culture, and her father’s extended family still keeps the tradition that exists in Lebanon, a lot of which involves music—drumming and dancing among others.“So I grew up all way around by that. I wrote my first song at the age of 11, inspired by the play ‘Anne’. ” She said, “I think music, since the beginning of time, has been an expression of culture. ”

With different comprehensions about music among the band members, the music they play generates a unique, mysterious tone. It shines for its own characteristics.

That, I would say, is indie.

The more I listen to indie music, the more I see how our modern world fosters the development of it. As our society tends to embrace diversity and respecting, if not appreciating, different perspectives, individuals decide to express their own distinct selves to public through various means. All those indie melodies are different from one another, and only attract a small group of people. Though people have been trying since the beginning of indie music’s emergence, indie music is hard to categorized.

“Music is so much of emotion, about how you feel. You can visualize everything just with the lyrics and the melody and express anything you wanna say. It doesn’t need to be categorized.” commented a band member.

Indie music is the kind that’s not produced with a label on it. Indie is a representation of whatever you want to say to the world.

While indie music divert into numerous branches and each one of them has its own personality, one ethic all indie music abides by is the so-called “Do It Yourself (DIY)” principle.

Main stream music aims at making market profits, hence the huge investments in production and advertisement intending to lead trends for massive audience. Music becomes consumables, and loses a certain portion of its artistic values. “People should accept all kinds of music and that kind of music can also be a form of expressing oneself, but I’m not a big fan of degrading other people or sexualizing women or things like that. To be honest, the main stream music nowadays are produced to general audience so they have to make a lot of people to like them. ” a band member remarked.

Unlike those kind of music, indie music preserves the pure and poetic spirit of music. It uses notes and drumbeats to speak, to communicate, and to entertain the artists themselves. They never need giant amount of money, complex equipments or an agent company. All they need are their beloved music instrument and a few hours’ chilling time.

Just like it is said, indie music is created with no one else in mind.

“We are musicians, not entertainers.” That’s the indie music spirit.