Beth Reader's A Level Media

Research into my chosen genre 
'Indie/pop rock'


When researched I found the wikipedia definition of the indie genre:
'Indie rock is a genre of alternative rock that originated in the United Kingdom and the United States in the 1980s. Indie rock is extremely diverse, with sub-genres that include lo-fi, post-rock, math rock, indie pop, dream pop, noise rock, space rock, sadcore, riot grrrl and emo, among others. Originally used to describe record labels, the term became associated with the music they produced and was initially used interchangeably with alternative rock.'
This is a general overview of the 'Indie' or 'Pop rock' genre, or the definition anyway. The way I interpret music may be different to the way that others interpret the noise they here. Personally I think that music is a big part of everyday life and that in some way it influences everyone. In the same way that we here music differently the artists that create this music see it differently...


The History of Indie 
(extract taken from wikipedia)



In the mid-1980s, the term "indie" began to be used to describe the music produced on post-punk labels rather than the labels themselves. The indie rock scene in the US was prefigured by the college rock that dominated college radio playlists which included key bands like R.E.M. from the US and The Smiths from the UK. These bands rejected the dominant synthpop of the early 1980s and helped inspire guitar-based jangle pop; Other important bands in the genre included the dB's and Let's Active from the US and The Housemartins and The La's from the UK. In the United States, the term was particularly associated with the abrasive, distortion-heavy sounds of Hüsker Dü, Sonic Youth, Minutemen, Meat Puppets, Dinosaur Jr., Pixies and The Replacements. The most abrasive and discordant outgrowth of punk was noise rock, which emphasised loud distorted electric guitars bands and powerful drums and was pioneered by bands including Sonic Youth, Swans, Big Black and Butthole Surfers. A number of prominent indie rock record labels were founded during the 1980s. These include 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.

 Indie pop

In the United Kingdom the C86 cassette, a 1986 NME premium featuring such bands as The Wedding Present, Primal Scream, The Pastels, and the Soup Dragons, was a document of the UK indie scene at the start of 1986, and gave its name to the indie pop scene that followed, which was a major influence on the development of the British indie scene as a whole. Major precursors of indie pop included Aztec Camera, Josef K and Orange Juice and major labels included Sarah, Bus Stop and Summershine. The Jesus and Mary Chain's sound combined the Velvet Underground's "melancholy noise" with Beach Boys pop melodies and Phil Spector's "Wall of Sound" production, while New Order emerged from the demise of post-punk band Joy Division and experimented with techno and house music. The Mary Chain, along with Dinosaur Jr, indie pop and the dream pop of Cocteau Twins, were the formative influences for the shoegazing movement of the late 1980s. Named for the band members' tendency to stare at their feet and guitar effects pedals onstage rather than interact with the audience, acts like My Bloody Valentine, and later Slowdive, Ride, and Lush created a loud "wash of sound" that obscured vocals and melodies with long, droning riffs, distortion, and feedback. The other major movement at the end of the 1980s was the drug-fuelled Madchester scene. Based around The Haçienda, a nightclub in Manchester owned by New Order and Factory Records, Madchester bands such as Happy Mondays and The Stone Roses mixed acid house dance rhythms, Northern soul and funk with melodic guitar pop.