Every once in a while, I’ll hear about an Indie band, film, radio station ect. In my younger days (like when I was 18), I took this radio production course. The final class project was to create sweepers, identification, promotion ect. for a new radio station with a group. I was placed in a group with a senior who somehow made it through his career without taking this class until his last semester. He also happened to host an “Indie” show. We didn’t have to come up with playlists but he thought it would be a good idea to revolve the project around his show. I may have been a shy timid 18 year old in college (read freshman with enough dual credits to be classified as a sophomore), but I did protest this idea. I suggested a jazz station since one did not exist. He rejected that by saying young people don’t listen to jazz and no new artist s come out of jazz. I knew other wise but the I was the only one that objected so we went along with it.
Fast forward to us “pitching” it to our professor who was really fair and the head of the department who likes to be on a power trip (ot: the longer I am away, the less I dislike her, I’ve run into a professor worse than her.). Of course the only criticism of ours is that she didn’t agree with our definition of Indie. I may not have agreed with this professor on a lot of things, but I do think her definition is true.
It is near impossible for something to be truly Indie. Instead it’s a marketing scheme to make it seem like one is not listening to mainstream. It’s about image. Unfortunately people think its an escape from Alternative music. It’s become too commercialized for its name they say. Alternative is music that is influenced by ska, punk , or grunge. At one time these genres were far from mainstream for the most part. Indie is not a response to Alternative not living up to its name.
Indie in media suggests that the product is not produced by a main company. Hahaha. Unless it was done in someone’s basement, it’s not Indie. Record companies, movie studios, newspapers, television companies, and other media companies are all tied together. Think of this way. The Daily Show, Daria, Letterman, and randomness on MTV was removed from youtube because all of these channels are loosely owned by Viacom. Record companies are the same. X company is supported by company Y. Radio stations are the same. College stations are typically owned/supported by the college. The college is a corporation. True they are further removed and more willing to give freedom, it is still a corporation that owns the station. Other stations (minus religious in some cases), are loosely tied together. That’s why some stations play the same song over and over. The playlists are similar.
Think about doing projects independently as well, you are influenced by previous experiences and mentors.
So maybe instead of the tradition definition, the term would describe how loosely connected something is to its controlling source.
