Indie-Rock

The term indie rock ( in the prescribed form independent rock familiar ) originally designated rock music in the broadest sense of the word, which was sold exclusively through independent labels. Meanwhile, the indie rock (also often called simply indie ) a diverse subgenre of alternative rock. The name derives from the indie rock is independence (English independence ) of the major record companies ( major labels ).

History

While the mainstream rock ever developed in the 1970s and began to indulge in bombastic arrangements, very elaborate productions and staged stage shows, were founded by the punk hype and by the NWOBHM bands, whose goal it was again, the youthful to give aggression expression. Due to the rejection of the " commerce " part of the punks and the lack of commercial suitability of Heavy Metals much of this music from independent labels has been sold. Thus, the term indie rock has been used as a synonym for difficult to market music, but still was mostly trying to categorize them by musical criteria.

During the 1980s, rock music became generally out of sight of mainstream music. Hip -hop, disco music and the for-profit New Wave were on the rise and creative rock artists were now only from underground scenes. Thus, the period without prospects for commercial success various subgenres from Death Metal to hardcore punk through to post-punk.

Of central importance here are The Stone Roses and The Smiths, whose music takes elements from garage rock, British Invasion, classic punk and rock 'n ' roll. However, these bands were talking, with the exception of the Smiths in the UK, only a smaller audience. Their musical influence came later to bear. In the U.S., an indie - rock scene had until the end of the 1980s developed their musical spectrum of new-wave -influenced bands like the Pixies or They Might Be Giants on more experimental rock music (such as Sonic Youth ) to handed to groups that can be considered as a precursor of grunge (about Dinosaur Jr. or Green River ).

With the beginning of the 1990s subculture redefined rock music had achieved such a broad effect that the music industry is now again began to invest more in this area. A direct consequence of this was the grunge boom around Nirvana. In the wake of the grunge hype came back bands, the guitar-based, rock rifforientierten played in the focus of public attention. Bands like Nirvana and Rage Against the Machine took back the classic rock elements of heavy metal, punk and blues rock into their music. Music that was previously marketed by independent labels and only one alternative (which is why alternative rock ) to mainstream music was, was able to record commercial success again.

Thus, a distinction between

• Alternative rock (usually synonymous with grunge ), who recorded the elements of punk and early heavy metal
• Alternative Metal, who aspired to the hardness of the decline in the underground metal
• Alternative Country, which increasingly took up playing styles of folk rock and country
• Stoner Rock, integrated the classic elements of the bass-heavy psychedelic rock and early Black Sabbath
• Indie rock, the collected different amount of elements of the British Invasion, blues, punk, garage rock, folk, new wave in itself. He is compared to the upper genres a lot softer and more pop. You can see it as a continuation of the post-punk.

Known to a wider public, the term indie rock especially at the end of 1990 or at the beginning of the new millennium. Important representatives of indie rock in this phase include Death Cab for Cutie, The Strokes, The Hives and The Libertines. Comparing the bands mentioned, it is noticeable that the term indie rock is very versatile and actually many different genres are summarized below. The Britpop, which was, inter alia, by popular British bands like Oasis, Blur, especially in the 1990s, many see as a subgenre of indie rock. Recent British bands such as Bloc Party, Franz Ferdinand and Kaiser Chiefs are strongly reminiscent of the music of these bands, so that a distinction between indie rock and Britpop is hardly possible, and both terms appear again and again, both in connection with the newer bands from England as well as older bands such as Oasis and Blur. In contrast to the term indie rock, the term Britpop, however, was even rejected by most bands that have been assigned by the media this genre; especially Oasis always distanced themselves from the term Britpop.

Currently, the term indie rock is as popular as ever, as it, especially in England, are constantly new, always still very young bands, their music, even if it is very different number of times, is assigned to the term indie rock. In general, this can present real indie trend with the beginning of the punk movement compare the late 1970s, which also took place especially in England and has many parallels to the so-called mainstream. In addition to England most current known indie bands from the U.S. and Sweden come. Also in Germany, Austria and Switzerland, there are some bands that are assigned to the indie -rock. An important pioneer was especially the band Tocotronic. Besides Blum field are the stars representative of the Hamburg School, the German texts with guitar music and a typical attitude combine. A harder German band of the genre, for example, is Muff Potter.