A New Millennium, and There’s NOTHING Good on the Radio

If the early ’90s was a catastrophe for the indie scene, the new millennium has been a huge success. It seems as though the big labels have poached every genre they possibly can, that bands are rejecting them en masse, and that the Internet has provided a way to get the music out to fans that has never before been attempted. The result is accessible, quality music in almost every conceivable drama.
In this atmosphere, it has become impossible to identify music


by its sound, or even by its sales. Best selling albums such as those put out by The Postal Service or Panic! At the Disco illustrate the new reality that is the indie music scene. Both bands are in fact pretty experimental in nature, with the Postal Service focus on electronica and Panic’s eclectic sound of every conceivable musical sound. There are still elements of soul, rock, and mellow listening to be found on the indie scene, and many bands popular through the ’90s (such as Collective Soul and Candle box) are now on their own labels or established indie labels.
In this atmosphere, there is a lot of conflicting opinion as to what indie music entails. Two definitions can be thought about here. The first is fairly simple, established in the ’90s; an indie act is any one that is not signed on with the big three labels. Another way to define the indie scene is in comparison to the acts signed by big labels, and played on the radio. Any recent listen to a local station should alarm music fans everywhere: the same artists or style of music is played over and over again, on every single radio station. Big labels laud themselves for being a mix, but the truth is there is a lot of R&B, even more pop, and a few dozen acts considered "rock" thrown in to appease those who do not know better.
Fans who do not like the feeling of wanting to stick augers in their ears have turned en masse to the potential of the internet. Because of the ability of the medium to disseminate music worldwide, it has become a major promotional tool for indie artists of all genres. Style of music seems no longer to be an issue, as grunge, punk, mellow, and electronica artists are often found on the same pages, if not under the same label.
In this true do it yourself era, there is more potential to have success as an independent artist without compromising your music or your message than ever before. On the downside, fans who might consider themselves hardcore "indie" also seem at a loss to define the movement, and thus any music that has any likeability factor is dismissed. Fortunately, this attitude is present only at one end of the spectrum, as is the case with most things in life. So, if someone is trying to tell you that an artist is not indie because they sold a certain amount of records, you might want to look into how those records were sold and who produced the album. Perhaps now more than ever before, music has the opportunity to truly be judged (for the first time by both sides) by the quality instead of by the amount of sales.