Passion Blog – Entry Four

On Tuesday night, like many other students, I went to see The Killers at the Bryce Jordan Center. It was the first indie rock concert I had ever gone to, so after the music finished screaming across the entire venue, I knew exactly what subgenre of music I would write about next.

Indie Rock has always been a confusing part of the music world for me. I still don’t totally know what the clear definition of it is, as it seems to encompass such an insanely large variety of sounds. When a subgenre is able to include Joywave, The Killers, Nirvana, and the Talking Heads, you have to question what it really even is.

When looking it up, I found that it is technically defined as music that is not published by a major label. The interesting thing about this is that it’s not at all defined by the actual sound of the music. As long as it has some kind of rock influence and was published independently or by a small record label, it counts as indie rock. The crazy thing about this is that, going strictly by definition, a band is able to leave the indie rock scene without changing their sound. All they would have to do is sign on to a major producer, and suddenly they aren’t indie rock anymore. Another cool bit of information about it is that while something is indie rock, it can also fit perfectly into another genre. For example, Nirvana is both indie rock and grunge.

This is not unique to indie rock, but what is unique is that it applies to nearly every single music group that is lumped into this subgenre. Joywave is synth-pop, The Killers are post-punk, The Arctic Monkeys are alternative rock, and so on. The reason I say nearly is because indie rock also encompasses artists that have sounds that are entirely unique. A stark example would be the Talking Heads, who pioneered a whole new kind of sound which still hasn’t been fully replicated today (maybe there is some bias here, I love Talking Heads).

All in all, I think it’s pretty crazy that this subgenre of rock is able to encompass such a vast and diverse catalog of music. If I told someone that I am a big fan of indie rock (which technically I am), that would give them virtually no clue about what actual styles of music I like.