Indie Music

[Bugs ****ing Bunny]

Birdseed's opinions are drawn on a very narrow source.

In the period 1987- 1990 the Indie scene was unbelieveable. Music was being redefined by bands like My Bloody Valentine, Spacemen 3, Loop, Nurse With Wound, Coil and assorted offshoots. It was genuinely new and unlimited. Meanwhile on the other wing of Indie bands like Pixies and the Stone Roses blew open the mainstream and redefined popular music.

Now that's "Indie". It's freedom from the commercial strictures of the major labels- where the only limits are your imagination and courage.

[SpencerH]

I thoght "indie music" in the thread title might be Indian music and I was interested who might listen to it. After all some people MUST like the weird high pitched howling that appears in the films (and elsewhere of course).

[Japher]

I thought the same thing Spenc... I am convinced that Bollywood music is sung by only 2 people, but with 1000s of lip syncers...

[Buck Birdseed]

And you'd in fact be right, although it's more like five or six. Someone like Mohammed Rafi could easily record something like 25 000 songs each...

Of course, Bollywood isn't really my scene when it comes to indian music. Much prefer Bhangra (Punjabi folk music as updated to modernity by punjabi emigrants in the the UK and US) and especially Chutney (A mixture of Soca and classic Hindi pop that's the music of the indian population of Trinidad).

[monolith94]

The best band around nowadays is "The Pillows".

[Japher]

Pillows? Is that one of Jacko's kids

[molly bloom]

Indie is a broad church. It's really just a catch all term that has been used to describe everyone from Snakefarm through Tarnation to Lush, Mercury Rev, Throwing Muses, early R.E.M., Stereolab and the cool indiepop of St. Etienne.

Buck seems to be on bit of a Patagonian nose flute trip at the moment .... ....although I too would normally opt for some 'ethnic' music over the latest jejune Velvet Underground/Stooges retread.

But music is like painting- everyone has their own thing, and I've met people who never listen to anything resembling 'world' music. I own no heavy metal or rap music- two genres that leave me cold. Reggae does little for me either, but I like early ska.

[Buck Birdseed]

Actually I hate world music too with a resounding passion. The phrase "neo-colonial intellectuals with superiority complexes denying third world peoples' their modernity and their right to cultural self-identification" comes to mind.

"My" music in this case revolves around various ethnic communities in the west and elsewhere doing creative things with new technology that don't end up sounding like "standard" mainstream pop. Jamaican dancehall, East Caribbean soca, bhangra, chutney, Brazilian carioca funk, South African kwaito, Houston screw, Atlanta crunk, Detroit ghetto-tech, Indonesian dangdut, Tanzanian bongo flava hip hop, bit of merengue, bit of raï, bit of French-Carribbean zouk, Arabic and Turkish pop, Miami bass, New Orleans bounce, some UK garage etc.

[Japher]

I like Ju-Ju music and Nigerian Jazz, i.e. Ali Farke Tour, Baba Maal, and a some other ones I can't really spell.

[Al B. Sure!]

umm buck... Jamaican dancehall and southern crunk are pretty damn mainstream in the US... crunk is too mainstream now in fact to the point of it being quite annoying and stupid

[reds4ever]

Originally posted by Albert Speer
umm buck... Jamaican dancehall and southern crunk are pretty damn mainstream in the US... crunk is too mainstream now in fact to the point of it being quite annoying and stupid

Jamaican dancehall != Sean Paul

[Buck Birdseed]

Oh, I don't care if they sell well, in fact I encourage it, I think the more good music sells the better. They're still regional genres, you don't see anyone making crunk outside Atlanta do you? Dancehall by virtue of its longer history gets copied pretty much everywhere, from South Africa to Germany, but Jamaica is still outstanding qualitatively.

What I meant is, I want groups of people doing their own thing rather than just copying what they hear on the radio. I suppose something as internationally prevalent as the Hampton Roads sound could be considered such an original, regional genre too, and it's not like I don't listen to that...

And reds, how's Sean Paul not Dancehall?

[Bugs ****ing Bunny]

Originally posted by molly bloom
Indie is a broad church. It's really just a catch all term that has been used to describe everyone from Snakefarm through Tarnation to Lush, Mercury Rev, Throwing Muses, early R.E.M., Stereolab and the cool indiepop of St. Etienne.

Buck seems to be on bit of a Patagonian nose flute trip at the moment .... ....although I too would normally opt for some 'ethnic' music over the latest jejune Velvet Underground/Stooges retread.

But music is like painting- everyone has their own thing, and I've met people who never listen to anything resembling 'world' music. I own no heavy metal or rap music- two genres that leave me cold. Reggae does little for me either, but I like early ska.

Molly- get your arse over to Counterglow. You'd love the "LWP" sessions on the music forum.

[reds4ever]

Originally posted by Buck Birdseed

And reds, how's Sean Paul not Dancehall?

I mean't he's not the 'be all and end all', the fact that him, Beanie Man, GhostFaceKiller and one or two others have started to sell well in the USA doesn't make dancehall mainstream


Sean Paul == Dancehall is true

Dancehall == Sean Paul is false

[General Ludd]

Originally posted by SpencerH
I thoght "indie music" in the thread title might be Indian music and I was interested who might listen to it. After all some people MUST like the weird high pitched howling that appears in the films (and elsewhere of course).

I'd take bollywood over britney spears.