The antithesis of Pop
You have songs that make it into the Top 40s and end up on every casual listener’s go-to Spotify playlists. Songs that get consistent radio-time, with music videos that go viral the instant they are uploaded. Then there’s Indie music, the underdogs that rule the underground. Of course, there’s a plethora of indie bands that nab up millions of views and Spotify listens, but nowhere near the scale of most Pop acts. There must be something responsible for the divide between these two worlds right?
What does it mean to be Indie?
The term “Indie” was originally used to categorise music which came from independent labels, as opposed to major labels. It eventually evolved from a description of one’s label backing into a term associated with a particularly “alternative”, off-kilter sound; one that rejects the tropes and conventions of mainstream music. Such conventions can be boiled down to song structure, instrumentation and most notably, production. To put it plainly, Indie music is raw and candid, the complete converse of polished, overproduced Pop hits. Sometimes songs might develop erratically and feature idiosyncratic instrumentation that leaves you wondering what the hell was making that sound. Other times songs are delivered so simply and directly that they leave a considerable impression on you without doing that much. All of this is attributed to the fact that these independent labels provided the single most valuable resource any musician could ask for: artistic freedom. With this, every Indie band was capable of forging a distinct sound that no other band could replicate.
The value of keeping it raw
Most listeners fail to realise the impact of studio production and song structure on their overall enjoyment of music. Oftentimes people are too accustomed to the glossiness and patterns of radio music that they haphazardly dismiss any song that falls below this hidden standard without ever knowing why. However, there’s only so much studio magic that can be topped up before the final product ends up sounding bland, shallow and derivative. It’s only when you strip away the artificiality of overproduction that you can truly hear the music for what it is, unfiltered and presented in its purest form. That is the beauty of Indie music, and it’s a very important lesson that every musician should learn from these songs. There is an art to not holding yourself back musically, an incomparable catharsis in letting your craziest ideas run wild, a sense of accomplishment in creating something that is so shamelessly you. Keep it raw, keep it Indie.
Listen to TnD Curates here