Research: the genre of Indie/alternative music

Research into the genre of Indie/alternative music

The indie/alternative genre covers a large amount of music and its fans pride themselves on being knowledgeable about music. This genre of music is also a genre where small and up and coming artists are often heavily focused on, as indie stands for the word independent which means that the bands and artists are less mainstream and have less coverage by the press. The music in this genre is not often mainstream and is liked by considerably smaller population of people than the genre of pop music, however the two genres are often closely linked even if the indie subculture do not like to admit it.  This subculture of people like to consider themselves different and individual but they can be identified by some items of clothing such as Dr. marten boots, vintage shirts and oversized denim jackets. The genre of music and subculture is linked closely to fashion, film and art.  

The name for the genre comes form the word independent that refers to how the music originally came from small independent music labels such as factory records rather than the larger more mainstream labels such as Sony. The name has somewhat lost its meaning today as the music industry has been engulfed by the three oligopolies, Sony, universal and warner bros.

The genre of indie music became prevalent in the 80s with band such as the smiths, sonic youth and the stone roses. The genre has expanded and has many different sounds today but one of its key features is that bands and artists of the past are never forgotten and are loved just the same by members of the subculture just the same, if not more, than many of todays bands. The genre of indie music today looks to bands such as belle and Sebastian, the arctic monkeys, slaves and tame impala.

Indie music has many different sounds and branches, for example it branches out into new wave and more electronic music such as new order and Gary Numan. It can also branch out into genres such as indie folk, punk, rock and prog rock.
some music magazines that would appeal to the indie subculture would include NME and Clash magazine as these magazine focus on new and up and coming artists and are aimed at a much younger audience. However in recent years NME has begun to focus on more mainstream, and even some R&B artists. 

This is a link to an article about the definition of the word indie and what it means to belong to the subculture: http://edition.cnn.com/2006/SHOWBIZ/Music/09/19/indie.overview/

Click here to watch a interview with the arctic monkeys.