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A friend pointed out an article at Paste.com asking “Is Indie Dead?”  It’s an interesting argument over semantics that sort of rehashes the old argument of “is corporate punk rock still punk and is heavy metal still heavy now that heavier stuff’s out there”.  It seems to be asking what to call “indie” now that “indie” – as a “movement” (or lack thereof), as a style, a sound and as a declaration of both creative and financial independence – has been co-opted as an official corporate genre.  It’s a good question, but perhaps it’s introduced and discussed with more melodrama than necessary.

Removed from context – many things lose their meaning. We shouldn’t truly be surprised by that. While working my way through my illustration degree I certainly encountered many people who’d worked their way through Life drawing, developing their own style for years, pushing the boundaries of perception until finally reaching a place where they were in Love with the process and the paint more than the imagery as part of their natural evolution.  And next to them was a guy who’d seen the work of Jackson Pollack and just thought it was a good idea.  I’d argue that there’s a lot of that around us.  We don’t constantly reinvent, and frankly, in our oversaturated, over-communicated, ever binding tapestry of plugged-in Life, we can’t shut out what’s come before.  Nor should we.

Just as in music you have Indie artists who aren’t independent and punk artists who aren’t very punk rock – in art school I got to face Impressionists who’d never seen Parisian light, Dadaists that have a method and well-dressed Anarchists. 

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In music – we don’t have to reinvent the sound of Jimi Hendrix – the way’s been paved, learned, relearned, ripped apart, rehashed, broken down, released in traditional notation, tablature, a how-to video on youtube and in a special edition fuzz-wah distortion pedal that you can buy for under a hundred dollars.

The article is insightful, but it’s not profound. My response can be summed up into a quibble over semantics: “Indie is dead. Long Live indie!” As with progressive and alternative and punk before it, a style of music with its accompanying imagery and Lifestyle has been co-opted not just by the Big Corporate Entities out there, but also by youth, who attach to it and emulate it. It’s not right or wrong, it’s perfectly natural – and I can like it or dislike it but to believe that a current artist can’t be genuine unless they understand all that’s gone before is to have contempt for every punk rocker who didn’t study their Mozart before playing their first power chord.  

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“If it’s cool, creative and different, it’s indie.” That sentence is perfectly fine if you put some additional quotes in and change the capitalization: “If it’s ‘cool’, ‘creative’ and ‘different’, it’s Indie.”  Our world’s too big to Live without generalizations and generalizations don’t work without clichés and clichés are defined by the majority. 

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Thank God / Major Labels for the definitions so that our presskits can point to something recognizable and we know what part of the iTunes store to browse.

I’m not an Indie artist – I don’t particularly like the sound. I guess I AM an “indie” artist.  I’m DIY, have Lived out of my car to do what I want to do, make my own artwork, website and occasionally the instruments that I play. I’ve got no label or any means of support outside of my music and art and things associated with it – which is SO punk rock.  But I’m inspired by metal, which I play on an acoustic guitar, which then makes me folk. 

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In an increasingly complex world, as artists we should be aware of those around us and what’s come before us but no-one can claim to be even fully aware of their peers, much less all the artists who’ve culminated in the sound and sensibility of their current work.  We can hate the corporate ownership, but as business people we should be thankful that someone’s put a definition to the derivative music that sounds like… well… like “Indie Rock”.  You can actually use the term in your presskit (er… EPK or myspace page) and anyone vaguely cognizant of their sonic surroundings will know what you’re talking about. 

Beautifully written article, pointing out that yep… it’s a cyclical problem of revolution and assimilation and revolution against assimilation.  And when we ask ourselves what we’re going to do about it it’s always the same answer: either quibble over semantics and ownership over words that are truly owned by the majority and common agreement – OR continue to find our voices, acknowledging but never being defined SOLELY by what has come before us.

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I say “Indie is dead – long Live indie”.  Don’t be afraid of those extra syllables.  Say what you mean.  I am an Independent Artist and very, very proud of it. 

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