FACT: Indie is not a genre

A few weeks ago, there was an event in my school called International Food Fiesta (A more classy way of saying "Hari Kantin"). There were many activities and when there's an event, there will be music. SOOO, I jokingly said to my friend "Next year I'm going to be the DJ and play better music than that". She replied "But not all people like indie" and I gave her the o_O face.

Before I start my rant, I really want to know why do people love to use phrases when they don't even know the exact meaning of it? It's not groovy at all.

Okay, like I wrote in the title..indie is not a genre. Indie is independent in long form. So, indie music means independent music. What is independent music? Musicians who are signed to independent music labels. Let's get to the root of this thing. A musician needs something to promote and distribute their music so music labels are formed. There are two types of labels, the mainstream labels and independent labels.

The mainstream labels comprised of the Big 4 "EMI, Universal, Warner Bros., Capitol" and artists that are signed to them are those can always be found getting airplayed like hell in MTV and radio stations. IMO, these companies are evil. Their main goal is to earn profits, thus making music as a product not as an art. Those who signed into those companies too have little control over their creative input to their music. The only reason I feel musicians signed into these are they either want to spread their music or just want to get rich.

But, musicians who are signed into independent labels have more creative control and are able to get more royalties. However, they won't have as much publicity as mainstream musicians. What I like about independent music is that there are so many kinds of music to listen to. From peaceful, melodic instrumental Post-Rock to harsh, crazy noise rock there are limitless genres of music in the indie stage.