What does and doesn't qualify here

TheMonster

What bands do people consider indie/alternative.

To me it would be
The Pixies
Badly Drawn Boy
Athlete
The Smiths
The Stone Roses
Modest Mouse
Madrugada
etc,etc

Would bands like Oasis,REM,Coldplay and Nirvana also fit it

I think we want to avoid the aggro that happens in the rock/metal forum whenever somes mentions a band that people don't agree with.

Sleepy

Whoever's made mod, the first rule I'd like to propose for the charter would be:

No discussing of whether a band is indie or alternative.

Both terms are pretty loosely defined and, within reason, I think that if the thread starter deems a band to be correctly categorised as either alt/indie, other posters should just accept this. Otherwise this board will be nothing but bickering.

TheMonster

Totally agree Sleepy - people are entitled to their opinions of bands and no-one should be shouted down just becuase they have different taste. we don't want this to turn into the farce that is the metal forum. Unless a band/singer is def outside a very broad description(i.e. Slayer,Chemical Brother or Daniel O'Donnell) it belongs here.

Zombienosh

aye! ...... alternative is a very broad title.

RE*AC*TOR

Wikipedia

Indie rock is a subgenre of rock music. However, as with many terms applied to popular culture, the precise meaning can be hard to define. Indie rock is often used to refer to bands that are on small independent record labels or that aren't on labels at all. In that sense, indie rock can be seen as the follower to the Punk and New Wave movements of the late 1970s and early 1980s, as a counter-culture movement opposed to mainstream corporate rock.

In the 1980s, these bands were referred to as "alternative", since they were an alternative to mainstream rock at that time. However, indie rock was effectively launched when Nirvana broke into the mainstream along with several other bands, taking the "alternative" label with them, ironically enough. "Indie rock" tends to be an umbrella term covering a wide range of musical styles - everyone from the Elephant 6 collective to the Pixies to the Cocteau Twins; the main thing tying these bands together is their existence in the underground. Some related genres include emo, lo-fi, retroist, alternative rock, twee pop (sub pop) and Britpop.

In the mid-90s, following the lead of Pearl Jam, many acts who, by choice or fate, remained outside the commercial mainstream, became part of the indie rock movement. Indie rock acts placed a premium on maintaining complete control of their music and careers, often releasing albums on their own independent record labels and relying on touring, word-of-mouth, and airplay on independent or college radio stations for promotion. Linked by an ethos more than a musical approach, the indie rock movement encompasses a wide range of styles, from hard-edged, grunge influenced bands like Superchunk to punk-folk singers such as Ani DiFranco.

John

What RE*AC*TOR said. I think most people know what to expect from Alternative/Indie instinctively. It's like irony*, hard to define but everyone gets it.






*irony = something of or like iron

nlgbbbblth

I remember Kylie Minogue sharing indie chart space with the likes of The House Of Love, Throwing Muses, Sonic Youth, Dinosaur Jr, AR Kane and The Wedding Present back in 1988

PWL Records eh? :rolleyes:

Piste

In the wikipedia entry for Alternative there's a long list of Bands that come under the umbrella of Alternative including Placebo and Radiohead, expect to see a lot more of me on this board