Indie Rock is a sub genre of Alternative Rock, that originated in 1980s UK and USA. In the 1990s when bands started to break into the mainstream, the term Indie Rock was used to describe those acts that still held an outsider and underground perspective from mainstream music. As a result of changes in the music industry in the 2000s and the key importance of the Internet, a number of indie rock acts began to enjoy mainstream success, which lead to the questionable use of the 'Indie Rock' term.
The main characteristics of indie rock, describes independent record labels with the do-it-yourself attitude of the bands and artists involved. Although bands and artists still have distribution deals with major corporate companies, they are still free to explore sounds, emotions and subjects of limited appeal to large, mainstream audiences.
A list of artists and bands included in the indie rock genre; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_indie_rock_musicians
Beginning of Indie Rock genre- 1980s:
During the mid-1980s, the phrase "indie" began to be used to describe the music produced on post-punk labels rather than major labels themselves. The indie rock scene in the US was projected through college rock radio play lists, which played popular bands like R.E.M. from the US and The Smiths from the UK. These bands rejected the dominant synthpop of the early 1980s, helping inspire guitar-based jangle pop; other important bands in the genre included 10,000 Maniacs and the dB's from the US, and The Housemartins and The La's from the UK. In the United States a number of popular indie rock record labels were founded during the 1980s, including Washington, DC's Dischord Records in 1980, Seattle's Sub Pop Records in 1986 and New York City's Matador Records and Durham, North Carolina's Merge Records in 1989. Chicago's Touch and Go Records was founded as a fanzine in 1979 and began to release records during the 1980s.
1990s:
In the 1990s, major changes to the indie rock genre were seen, with grunge bands such as Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, Hole, and Alice in Chains broke into the mainstream area, achieving popularity, commercial chart success and widespread exposure. Punk revival bands like Green Day and The Offspring also followed in popularity and success becoming grouped under the "alternative" umbrella. Whilst in the United Kingdom, Britpop saw bands like Blur and Oasis break into mainstream, leaving the regional, small-scale and political elements of the 1980s indie era behind. Because of these changes, the term "alternative" lost its original meaning of being signed to independant record labels and now refered to indie bands achieving mainstream success. This theory changed the original term to being signed to an independant record label is more of a career choice for bands privy to industry functions rather than an ideal. The term "indie rock" became associated with the bands and genres that remained dedicated to their independent status. Even grunge bands, following their break with success, began to create more independent sounding music, further blurring the lines of who is included within mainstream music and alternative.
2000s:
The 2000s, saw the change in the music industry and the decline in record sales because of the growth of new digital technology and increased use of the Internet as a tool for music promotion. This allowed a new wave of indie rock bands to achieve mainstream success and existing indie bands that were now able to enter the mainstream included more musically and emotionally complex bands including Modest Mouse (whose 2004 album Good News for People Who Love Bad News reached the US top 40 and was nominated for a Grammy Award), Bright Eyes (who in 2004 had two singles at the top of the Billboard magazine Hot 100 Single Sales) and Death Cab for Cutie (whose 2005 album Plans debuted at number four in the US, remaining on the Billboard charts for nearly one year and achieving platinum status and a Grammy nomination). The new commercial breakthrough and the widespread use of the term indie to other forms of popular culture, led a number of commentators to suggest that indie rock had ceased to be a meaningful term.
During the decade the term which hadn't meant a lot in the United States with very limited usage "became the label of choice for Americans – and an even greater worldwide audience – to talk about modern rock and pop music".
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