ThorOdinson

Pft. Indie is what you make of it. The more you listen to other people the less independent you are.

LoganFiddle

SD4LIFE exactly, I think MOST Indie Bands are pretentious and god damn repetitive and tiresome, BUT, like SD4LIFE said, if they kick ass and don't need a label, that is what a REAL indie band is.

Unfortunately, an "Indie" band these days, is a group of people pretending to be a group of people who don't care about if they are a band, but rather, when no one is watching, they are a group of people who love the fact that they are a band.

So many pretentious people, but at least there is good music stuck between the mountains of "I want to be french" socialites.

Cashie

I think inde has two defenitions, it origanally meant bands who did not have a musc label, but now people are recognising it as a genre.

elephant_stoned

surely the answer is independent, but independent from what is the question, my personal belief is that the musicians are doing what they do for reasons internal to themselvs such as self expression and without need or dependence of other sources of motivation such as fame or money just a thought

TrinityAmber

I think it's going a little too far to say '...bands that aren't out looking for attention, or money, or getting on MTV.' are the only ones who are indie. I'm sure quite a few indie bands would love to get their music video on tv or make some money.

I think sticking to what Ace_Aso said about independent labels vs majors is what indie is, and screw this whole 'indie as genre' crap

No1Fan

independant

Hearing Colors

oh man this is getting as hard to put into words as the definition of punk rock. my advice to you is to not worry about what indie actually is. the definition of indie is pretty subjective.

Cherry

It's cool that you wrote that - this paragraph helped me to word what indie means to me. To me, an indie band is a group of people who share similar views, who hang out together and have good relationships between each other. So, when no one is watching and even they are not playing music, they still have fun together. This kind of ethics is also what defines indie label - at true such label no band would be signed if they don't behave like, nice. It's not like a guy from a band comes to the label founder only to ask for a paycheck, musicians and label workers all do one thing, they're like a collective of people united by the same idea and, quite likely, aesthetic ideals. If this is the case, this is what indie is to me.

BirdandtheSoul

I've never liked the label of "Indie" as a genre. I can't really figure out when it changed from being on an independent label to actually being a style of music.

To say that 'indie bands' are people who really doesn't care about being heard or liked is ridiculous. If that were the case people would just record music and not share it publicly. We start bands because we love art and like sharing the art we create. It's a bonus if people do like it!

-jay (Bird and the Soul - not an indie band?

sum42

Couldn't agree more. Also I must add that it became really hard to answer to the question:"What kind of music do you listen to?"

Those days, I really don't feel comfortable with saying I listen to INDIE...

On the other hand does this make me a hipster? I recently read (whilst crying with laughter because I felt kind of caught right there and then) that the more you deny being one...the more you actually are a hipster (yes, I own the shiny technical devices with the fruit on them, I own a smartphone, and I mostly know listen to bands where if people ask me about them I am forced to answer: "oh, it's something new I found, you wouldn't know it." because it is the honest truth)

jesbadio

I like the "Indie is what you make of it" comment